Intel Decided To Stick With LGA Platform With Skylake Chips

Intel has updated its longterm roadmap, the roadmap indicated that Intel isn’t pushing the BGA platform into the desktop market and therefore eliminating the upgradability factor in PC Desktop platforms.

It also showed that the upgradeable LGA socket mounting will be used at least till 2015. Intel would stick with 95% of their desktop processor lineup with LGA. By then processors codenamed Skylake will have a socket month. Just like atom and many low powered units, entry level Broadwell and Skylake chips will have BGA mount.

It was only last year when Intel made plans to ditch the LGA platform and have a BGA mount, where the processors will be soldered to the motherboard, therefore restricting inter-changeability of processors on existing motherboards.

Usually BGA is used in units such as utrabooks and AIO desktop units so that the manufacturers will be able to accommodate thinner form factor. But implementing this on the DIY desktop PC market would not only affect the desktop market, but also increase a risk of loss due to stockpiling as companies will have no choice but to have large quantities of motherboards of a model with different combinations of embedded processors.

When the news broke out that Haswell would be the last to have LGA socket mount and Broadwell will be the first to have embedded solution for the mainstream desktop PC market, this created criticism not just by industry’s experts, but also from power users, hardware enthusiasts and often a topic filled with a series of heated debates across multiple internet forums. While its true that BGA has its advantages, especially in regards to costs, its difficult to think that a company as dominating as Intel would decide to implement such a change that will dramatically affect one of their business products where they enjoy and thrive on success, even over AMD from time-to-time.

Source: Xbit Labs