Intel teases low-power Haswell chip for fanless tablets

[Jos]

With virtually no competition on the performance front when it comes to traditional computers, but much to be gained in the mobile space, Intel has been increasingly focusing on power efficiency. Haswell has already gone a long way improving battery life on ultra thin notebooks, and now, the company is making good on its promise to follow up with lower power variants by announcing a new Y-series part carrying a 4.5W SDP.

For those unfamiliar with Intel’s new power rating, SDP stands for scenario design point and is specific to Y-series SKUs. AnandTech explains how the chipmaker comes up with this number and how it differs from TDP:

Intel calculates TDP by looking at average power through a set of benchmarks that tend to include some of the worst case offenders on a desktop or notebook PC. The SDP thermal rating uses a lesser set of benchmarks, more appropriate for a thin tablet chassis, to determine average power. If you run Furmark on one of these parts and the OEM building the system does nothing to thermally manage the platform, it'll dissipate 11.5W. If you use it like a tablet, you should see 4.5W (or 6W depending on the SKU) as the average power dissipated.

In simpler terms, for typical tablet workloads (web browsing, email, gaming, video playback, etc.), the chip should be able to fit comfortably inside a chassis designed to cool only 4.5 watts worth of heat. According to AnandTech, that means it's possible to get Haswell in a fanless tablet design.

Whether that actually happens remains to be seen. Much like the 6W SDP Haswell Y-series parts unveiled in January, these will only be available in limited quantities, which may serve as an indication that there are no big plans or design wins behind Haswell ULT yet. It’s still a testament to Intel’s commitment getting its latest processors down the power scale, enough to pose a serious threat to ARM eventually.

It’ll also be interesting to see how Samsung’s 10.1 inch Galaxy Tab 3 fares in the market. The device is powered by an older Atom Z2560 "Clover Trail+" processor, but it’s the first Intel Android device released in the US, and from a big name manufacturer no less. Intel sure needs the OEM support to gain a foothold in the mobile space.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/53338-intel-teases-low-power-haswell-chip-for-fanless-tablets.html

 

[St1ckM4n]

Inb4 haswell Surface Pro Pro.

That's what we're all waiting for, of course...

 

[tipstir]

Reading where the source is on this subject is the cost of the Intel going to be too high where the present ARM are cheaper officer Dual/Quad core for less. Intel chips are not cheap. Intel Atom is faster than any of the current ARM though.

Surface RT 1.3/1.4GHz ARM Quad Core 2G limit on RAM, Surface 32-bit Pro Dual core 700MHz/1.5/1.8GHz (turbo mode) 2GB Limit on RAM and Surface 64-bit Pro i5 1.7GHz Dual core 4G. are not cheap tablets.

 

[Jad Chaar]

4.5W... that is crazy!

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

4.5W... that is crazy!

Yeah. You practically need a power station to drive it.

 

[VitalyT]

It is great for low-end ultrabooks that otherwise use hungrier Intel chips, but still too much for tablets that are used to ARM chips.

 

[ypsylon]

4.5W SDP is like 8W of TDP. Clever trick from intel. Many will be fooled by this SDP rating instead of more realistic TDP.

I can see exploding tablets already. LOL Browsing internet - everything is fine. Watching BR movie and everything melts. 4.5W SDP - too much for tablet.