Intel Lynx Point Chipset Gets Detailed

Intel’s Haswell CPUs are not due until the midpoint of 2013 but as early as now details about it are starting to surface indicating the Santa Clara based chip giant is already deep into developing them. The latest bit of information we have now is about the 8-series chipset codenamed “Lynx Point” which will pair with the CPUs for the new platform.

Because Intel will use a different CPU architecture for Haswell, the LGA1155 socket used by Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge will no longer suffice therefore the newer CPU will require a new one and that will be the LGA1150 socket.

Now with the change of architecture, some features that we are expecting from Intel’s 7-series chipset for Ivy Bridge will be already integrated to the CPU by the time Haswell arrives. This means that Lynx Point will be less complex as a chipset.

A major change in Lynx Point is that it will no longer be required to bridge digital display outputs for the CPU and the video ports as Haswell will already be able to handle it on its own. The VGA interface though still has to go through the chipset.

Another change in Lynx Point will be the full implementation of six SATA 6Gbps ports. Current Intel chipsets only support two SATA 6Gbps and four SATA 3Gbps ports requiring the need for a third party SATA controller for more SATA 6Gbps ports.

In addition to more SATA 6Gbps ports, there will also be more USB 3.0 ports as Lynx Point will support up to six of those. There will also be a new feature called I/O flexibility although it is still unclear what advantages it brings.

Other new features that will be present with the chipset are SSD performance and power optimization, lower power consumption and a smaller package (22x23mm).

Of course nothing is perfect and although there are a lot of new good features that Intel will be including in their Lynx Point chipset, there are also a couple of features that need to be improved in some way. That includes the use of the old DMI interface resulting to the chipset still being stuck with PCI-Express 2.0 ports.

Source: VR-Zone