At the last CeBIT Messe in the lovely Hannover we already saw some new motherboards pop up, partly revealing that Intel will launch a new chipset; sadly we officially can't disclose the exact name of the former mentioned chipset; nevertheless mostly everybody has already figured out the new name for the sucessor of the Z87 chipset. A new chipset release usually goes hand in hand with a new processor lineup. Last Monday Intel partly revealed some of its plans for mid 2014. Without wasting too much words, believe me it's gonna be a very interesting summer.

One of the biggest complaints with the 3rd and 4th Generation processors was the inferior heat transfer from the processor cores to the Internal Heat Spreader, mainly an issue due to the used TIM and/or the amounts of glue that held the same heatspreader in position.

Codename Devil's Canyon will be the refresh of the current 4th generation Haswell CPUs; Lisa Graff, Intel's desktop spokesperson warranted better performance and higher overclocking potential. No real world performance was officially disclosed though; however if we look at previous Tick or Tock releases, the increase in performance can be expected around the 5-10% mark, which is again great news for enthusiasts and overclockers. The updated packaging materials sadly only refers to a new box design to ship the CPUs in. To fully  benefit from the new architectural enhancements the new upcoming Intel 9 series chipset must be used, though many brands already have BIOSes ready for this Haswell refresh and the older Z87 chipset based motheboards. An interesting test to see whether the claim to be obliged to use the new Intel 9 series is valid yes or no.

Since the Pentium Brand has been introduced 20 years ago, Intel will release a new Pentium Anniversary Edition. The end user has the possibility to overclock these unlocked multiplier Haswell based Pentium CPUs for maximum performance at an entry level price. Slight instruction enhancements and the addition of Intel Quick Sync Video will be a big plus for the entry level Anniversary Pentium processors.

The integrated graphic devices are evolving generation on generation, though even the latest desktop HD4600 iGPU of the Intel Core I7 4770K is not powerful enough to compete with the integrated graphic solutions of the AMD Richland and Kaveri APU offerings. Only the Iris Pro with embedded 128MB EDO RAM of the Core i7 4770R is more powerful then the previous mentioned AMD solutions; major drawback is these Iris Pro CPUs were till now only available in pre-build small form factor PCs alike the Gigabyte Brix-Pro solution. Compared to the AMD APUs it is a powerful solution both graphic and processor wise, though the price of the 4770R CPU alone is more then the double then the earlier this year released AMD Kaveri A10-7850K processor.

With the upcoming 5th Gen Core, codenamed Broadwell Processors, Intel will finally make the Iris Pro graphics available for desktop users. If the Iris Pro will be available as promised in the Core i5 and i7 K skew processors, it will cause a serious stir in the APU market.  Better processing power and decent medium resolution game play on the 14nm Intel processors will take out a serious bite out of AMD's market share in mid 2014. Again no technical nor performance info was disclosed during the conference call. Though we must admit it all looks promising.

Last but not least Intel plans to release the Haswell Extreme series 2nd half of 2014. Bundled with the launch of the Intel X99 chipset, there is no doubt this high end platform will be one of the fastest retail available desktop platforms on the planet. Xeon 8-core technology will available for the desktop users. The usage of DDR4 memory will be expected to be at start low running frequencies (around 2400MHz), though we all are hoping for +3000MHz, to squeeze out that little extra performance. Some websites already leaked the names of Broadwell-E processors (i7-6820/6930K and the extreme i7-6960X), stating these will be compatible with the upcoming X99 chipset. Speculation of course, as this is still a generation further ahead. It would be logic that Intel won't make a chipset swap for the next generation. Great to see the high end range receiving a major overhaul this year.

Similar to the current Ivy-Bridge E platform, it will remain the million dollar question if the costs will add up to the performance gain. 3D rendering and co will greatly benefit from the new architectural technologies, gamers might better stick with the more affordable Haswell/Broadwell range. However it is still early days. Our yearly visit to the center of the hardware bussiness and development Taipei might reveal more concrete info what these new technologies will bring. Computex 2014 will be a very interesting trade show for sure !