AMD's statement that it will continue to support the enthusiast market with socket-friendly processor packaging appears to have tipped Intel's hand, with the chip giant finally breaking silence on the matter and pledging its own support to the market.
Following the leak of a roadmap for Intel's future processor families which showed only ball-grid array (BGA) packaging and no land-grid array (LGA) chips - meaning the roadmapped parts would need to be permanently soldered onto a motherboard - rumours spread that Intel was abandoning the user-replaceable CPU market in favour of embedded-style non-replaceable parts.
AMD was quick to jump on said rumours, issuing a statement that assured chip buyers that AMD wouldn't be abandoning socketed processors any time soon, cleverly positioning the company as the enthusiast-friendly alternative to mean old Intel and its locked-down BGA-only product plans.
Those plans, of course, were unconfirmed: the leaked roadmap may well have represented only a part of Intel's future product plans, or - and as seems likely - a separate branch of mobile-friendly parts which will be replaced with BGA and LGA parts once more when Intel's tick-tock development cycle passes by once more. Intel didn't help calm the storm by sticking to its traditional refusal to comment on what the company likes to dismiss as 'industry rumour and speculation,' the traditional line that comes when queries about unannounced products are sent to the company's press office.
Intel has had to do something, however, and do something it has: the company has ended its stony silence on the matter and in doing so broken with a long-standing refusal to comment on products that have not yet been announced. Speaking to Maximum PC, the company denied claims that LGA sockets were on the out. 'Intel remains committed to the growing desktop enthusiast and channel markets,' Intel's Daniel Snyder told the site, and will continue to offer socketed parts in the LGA package for the foreseeable future for our customers and the enthusiast DIY market.'
Snyder went on to explain that he would not be commenting on 'long-term product roadmap plans,' leaving paranoiacs to wonder whether the rumoured BGA-only Broadwell parts are far enough in the future to escape Intel's promise to produce LGA processors - but, for now, it looks like this rumour can be put to bed.
Following the leak of a roadmap for Intel's future processor families which showed only ball-grid array (BGA) packaging and no land-grid array (LGA) chips - meaning the roadmapped parts would need to be permanently soldered onto a motherboard - rumours spread that Intel was abandoning the user-replaceable CPU market in favour of embedded-style non-replaceable parts.
AMD was quick to jump on said rumours, issuing a statement that assured chip buyers that AMD wouldn't be abandoning socketed processors any time soon, cleverly positioning the company as the enthusiast-friendly alternative to mean old Intel and its locked-down BGA-only product plans.
Those plans, of course, were unconfirmed: the leaked roadmap may well have represented only a part of Intel's future product plans, or - and as seems likely - a separate branch of mobile-friendly parts which will be replaced with BGA and LGA parts once more when Intel's tick-tock development cycle passes by once more. Intel didn't help calm the storm by sticking to its traditional refusal to comment on what the company likes to dismiss as 'industry rumour and speculation,' the traditional line that comes when queries about unannounced products are sent to the company's press office.
Intel has had to do something, however, and do something it has: the company has ended its stony silence on the matter and in doing so broken with a long-standing refusal to comment on products that have not yet been announced. Speaking to Maximum PC, the company denied claims that LGA sockets were on the out. 'Intel remains committed to the growing desktop enthusiast and channel markets,' Intel's Daniel Snyder told the site, and will continue to offer socketed parts in the LGA package for the foreseeable future for our customers and the enthusiast DIY market.'
Snyder went on to explain that he would not be commenting on 'long-term product roadmap plans,' leaving paranoiacs to wonder whether the rumoured BGA-only Broadwell parts are far enough in the future to escape Intel's promise to produce LGA processors - but, for now, it looks like this rumour can be put to bed.
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