Intel Broadwell to arrive in 2015?

VR Zone got its hands on a new desktop processor roadmap from Intel that shows the chip giant plans to release a Haswell Refresh platform in 2014. This platform will include new 9-series chipsets. In 2014 we can also expect the Haswell-E processor, but no Broadwell processor. VR Zone heard from its sources that Broadwell has been delayed until early 2014 at the least.

The refresh will offer two things: one is the mid-term stepping with likely a bit of clock speed jump in both mainstream and unlocked version, something we always had with Intel desktop offerings except in the Ivy Bridge generation. Since the Xeon E3 workstation versions of the new Haswell right now will start at 3.6 GHz base top speed rather than 3.5 GHz on the i7-4770K, you could guess that by next year, the top bin for the unlocked desktops will likely sport the same speed, although it may be immaterial to the overclockers pushing the parts towards 5 GHz and beyond. The ‘locked mainstream’ bins would benefit more for the extra one or two notches on the multiplier, of course.

The other upgrade will be the Z97 chipset, originally planned to coincide with the Broadwell launch, but now allowed to carry the Haswell refresh platform side. Basically, the 1000 MB/s SATA Express interface /just one of these slots this time/ for the mass storage is the key news here, plus the Boot Guard and Intel Device protection against low level malware attacks bypassing the OS.