Intel 8-Series Chipset Scheduled April 2013

Even though Intel's tablet efforts aren't going to pay off this year, the core of its business continues to experience a great success, so it stands to reason that nothing but optimism surrounds the 8-series chipsets and Haswell CPUs.

We've known, for some time, that Haswell processors and their corresponding chipsets, would be released in the first quarter (or at least first half) of 2013. Now we know the exact month when the big reveal will happen, courtesy of Digitimes: April. Then again, it's not exactly a shock. After all, the 7-series chipsets were introduced in April 2012. The first processors out, from the Haswell line, will be the mainstream and high-end, coupled with the Z87 and H87 platforms. They will replace the teams made by Ivy Bridge and Z77, Z75 and H77 chipsets. The only 8-series core-logic that will come later is the H81, for the entry-level market. It will only take the place of the H61 in June 2013. All things considered, Ivy Bridge is shaping up to be the shortest-lived notebook (and even desktop) platform in recent years.

Had the 8-series been backwards compatible with the LGA1155 platform, upgrades would have been an easy enough matter. Unfortunately, Haswell-based units built on the 22nm manufacturing process will have a better architecture but a different socket: LGA1150. We've already seen our share of complaints about this in fact. Few people are glad about having bought a new high-end motherboard only to find out they won't be able to use it with next-generation CPUs. This may also be one of the reasons PC demand is rather weak at the moment. Some prospective buyers are already delaying new PC purchases until they have hope that they won't be stuck with just a one-year wonder (again). Nevertheless, market watchers continue to think the peak for Intel Ivy Bridge demand will be in the fourth quarter of 2012.

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Image credits to Intel

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