During Intel's recent quarterly earnings conference call, the company revealed that production of Broadwell processors has been pushed back a full quarter due to yield problems with the 14-nanometer production process. As such, the company will now start production in the first quarter of 2014 and according to a leaked Intel roadmap, unlocked Broadwell chips aren't scheduled to arrive until the fourth quarter of 2014.
The chip in question is expected to be based on the LGA 1150 socket although it may still require a new motherboard due to a change in Intel's power specifications for the socket. Specifically, we are told the new requirements involve a different power supply for VCCST and a V_PROC_IO for 1.05V and a new chip topology that requires a modified THRMTRIP output buffer.
Interestingly enough, the late 2014 Broadwell-K chip is the only Broadwell processor on the roadmap for all of 2014 and early 2015. Predictably, Haswell will receive a refresh and should arrive before the Broadwell-K chips ship.
Part of the reason for the lack of Broadwell chips on the roadmap could be due to a rumor that surfaced early this year. A trusted source in the motherboard industry revealed that some Broadwell CPUs would arrive pre-soldered onto desktop boards. They even claim that all low-end variants of Broadwell would arrive in this fashion but whether or not that pans out remains to be seen.