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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: 1) by chrysosphinx on Thursday August 13 2015, @03:23PM
I still remember 386sx which was a laptop processor and 386dx which was desktop/server processor. And historically, 8086 was used often as desktop processor for MS DOS while 80286 as a server processor, running Novell NetWare. At that time, I used a mainframe daily, too. So, market segmentation is quite a reality and have always been.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by FunnyItWorkedLastTime on Thursday August 13 2015, @06:03PM
Indeed, the 386 had a shitload of different versions, not just SX/DX, there were socketed(PGA & TCP), numerous SMD(QFP) versions in SX/DX/EX flavors, even whole upgrade boards to retrofit 286 mobos and spanning speeds from ~16Mhz up to ~50Mhz.
Intels weren't necessarily the fastest either(they topped out at 33Mz), lots of their competitors(AMD,CYRIX, TI et al) at the time made much higher clocked versions, and the socketed versions were mostly interchangeable.
Those companies also added their own deliberately obtuse models like the Cyrix CX486DLC, which was actually a 386 on a 2:1 clock multiplier and many others [cpu-world.com]
Of course if you were really serious you added an 80387 FPU, IIRC the Cyrix(now Via) one was actually quite good.
So if I really had to gripe about modern CPUs, besides the obvious lack of competition in the desktop space, it'd be the lack of socket compatible CPUs between vendors, my old Super Socket7 [wikipedia.org] board went all the way from a 75Mhz Pentium to a 500Mhz AMD K6-2 during its lifetime. *good times*
Kinda hoping there would be a universal 'SoC' socket a la AMDs AM1(only cross ARM/x86 and vendor compatible), but since AMD cancelled Skybridge [extremetech.com] it looks like the chance of that even partially happening is a pipe-dream.. Maybe Project ARA hmm..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @08:36PM
The 386SX was a 16 bit bus version of the 386DX (Which unlike the 486DX but like all pre-486 Intel chips didn't have an onboard FPU) intended for use with 'cheaper' chipsets (And possibly compatibility with 286 chipsets, although that may be incorrect.)
The SL was interestingly enough the first intel chip with the SMM which lead to the PPro+ writemsr issue.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2015, @05:08AM
both were used in laptops and desktops. 386SXs were 386DXs with the math coprocessor disabled, most likely because that part of die was defective on those chips. 386SX was the cheap/budget chip. that's all.
then AMD came out with 386-50 (overclockable to 100MHz oooh! but those could keep up with Pentium 90s iirc too...)