Lower-end Broadwell CPUs may be soldered onto the motherboard

@Guest, I'm not sure anybody here is, "completely fine" with this news. But, Intel is already on this path with their "Atom" CPUs, which you can't buy without a board. You can still buy these CPUs with aftermarket motherboards.

The great unwashed, (and some washed), masses, are gravitating toward, "computer like, toy hybrid, "devices", to unconsciously express how little progress they've made since childhood, when they could only point at, and touch things, with the tips of their fingers.

Perhaps the touch tablet phenomenon, simply harkens back to those simpler days when you were bottle fed, "glurg" and "wah" were the extent of your vocabulary, and you had your a** wiped for you.

In any event, your paranoia and my maxed out level of disdain, even cumulatively, will do nothing to change the course of "computer evolution".

For an increasing number of applications, solder in CPUs with decent processing power, are the only sensible options. Not just for tablets and phones, but HTPC applications as well.

I once joked with my son, (when his Crapple MIni Mac went down with a bad HDD), "I'm going to give you this desktop PC son, and should you ever buy another Mini, it will make a great stand for it".

This isn't always the case though, my sl8 has a normal SSD which can be taken out and upgraded if you really want (probs voiding any warranty).

And tbh this method suggested Intel might take would probably suit many businesses. I have never known an business buy a new CPU for an old machine they generally aim for a whole new pc.

Doing something perhaps necessary to a consumer device which, "voids the warranty", does take it into realm of the, "no user serviceable components inside", throw away electronics

And I have personally never seen a CPU go bad in normal usage either. (I'm not a tech though). And given the bloat and hardware requirements of "updated" programs, they generally need one.

Although, I expect a few P-4s, with XP, are still browsing the web with IE6, perish the thought.

The enthusiast sector is paranoid they won't be coddled and pandered to as they are now, and in the past.

Intel will mine money wherever and however it can, so they'll likely offer choices in that arena.

The only question you have to ask regarding the impact of this potential inevitability is, where will Intel place the "upper limit" of the "low end Broadwell".

I doubt that it will be at the i7-3770K level, but that's just a guess, mind you.