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from the like-having-a-server-in-your-pocket dept.
Late last week Intel announced its first workstation-grade Xeon CPUs for laptops. The exact details aren't available, nor is a release date, although the details it did release are intriguing.
Xeons have been available for high-end desktops doing work like CAD and other graphic design because they have features a business power user would want, like error correcting code (ECC) memory and the vPro business management features.
The laptop processor, the Xeon E3-1500M v5, is meant for that same market of power users who are on the go or move between locations and need mobility. And while the new Skylake processor will have some advanced features like ECC, there are some other goodies.
The Xeon E3-1500M v5 will include Thunderbolt 3 and USB Type-C ports, which support 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 transfer speeds. It will also have its own optimized graphics, although Intel did not go into details. The Xeon has never been known as a graphics champ since it runs on servers, but the upcoming Skylake line is said to have very good graphics, so we may see a desktop Xeon with Skylake-level graphics.
(Score: 3, Informative) by gman003 on Thursday August 13 2015, @01:44PM
Yes. Back then they sold one chip that worked tolerably for everything. Mostly. Their servers were underpowered, their laptops had minimal battery life, and only their desktops came close to working as well as they could.
Now they sell laptop chips that are really good in laptops, desktop chips that are really good in desktops, server chips that are really good in servers, and cellphone chips that... work tolerably in cellphones. Some of it is artificial division - there's not much of a difference between a desktop i7 and a server E3, to the point that they're socket-compatible. Similarly, the laptop and desktop chips come off the same fab line, they just pick the more power-efficient ones for laptops, and the ones that handle high clocks for desktops. But a lot of it is actual, meaningful division. The Xeon E5/E7 chips have all the extra circuitry for multi-socket operations, which would be wasted in a desktop, and they usually have far more cores, at lower speed, which would not perform well in a client setting. The mobile chips generally have trouble hitting the high clock rates of the desktop/server chips, so they're not used in desktops except where TDP matters (usually all-in-ones).
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Thursday August 13 2015, @09:33PM
they just pick the more power-efficient ones for laptops, and the ones that handle high clocks for desktops.
Those are the same thing. I've read a few times that the best silicon of all goes into the high-end mobile products.