Broadwell is the fifth generation of the Intel Core Processor. It is Intel's codename for the 14 nanometer

die shrink The term die shrink (sometimes optical shrink or process shrink) refers to the scaling of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices. The act of shrinking a die is to create a somewhat identical circuit using a more advanced fabrication process, u ...

of its Haswell microarchitecture. It is a "tick" in Intel's tick–tock principle as the next step in semiconductor fabrication. Like some of the previous tick-tock iterations, Broadwell did not completely replace the full range of CPUs from the previous

microarchitecture In computer engineering, microarchitecture, also called computer organization and sometimes abbreviated as µarch or uarch, is the way a given instruction set architecture (ISA) is implemented in a particular processor. A given ISA may be imp ...

( Haswell), as there were no low-end desktop CPUs based on Broadwell. Some of the processors based on the Broadwell microarchitecture are marketed as "5th-generation Core" i3, i5 and i7 processors. This moniker is however not used for marketing of the Broadwell-based Celeron, Pentium or Xeon chips. This microarchitecture also introduced the Core M processor branding. Broadwell is the last Intel platform on which

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

is supported by either Intel or Microsoft; however, third-party hardware vendors have offered limited Windows 7 support on more recent platforms. Broadwell's H and C variants are used in conjunction with

Intel 9 Series chipsets This article provides a list of motherboard chipsets made by Intel, divided into three main categories: those that use the PCI bus for interconnection (the 4xx series), those that connect using specialized "hub links" (the 8xx series), and those ...

( Z97, H97 and HM97), in addition to retaining backward compatibility with some of the Intel 8 Series chipsets.

Design and variants

Broadwell has been launched in three major variants: * BGA package: ** ''Broadwell-Y'':

system on a chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memor ...

(SoC); 4.5 W and 3.5 W thermal design power (TDP) classes, for tablets and certain ultrabook-class implementations. GT2 GPU was used, while maximum supported memory is 8 GB of LPDDR3-1600. These were the first chips to roll out, in Q3/Q4 2014. At

Computex COMPUTEX Taipei, or Taipei International Information Technology Show (), is a computer expo held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. Since the early 2000s, it is one of the largest computer and technology trade shows in the world. The last COMPUTEX was ...

2014, Intel announced that these chips would be branded as '' Core M''.

TSX The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in the ...

instructions are disabled in this series of processors because a bug that cannot be fixed with a microcode update exists. ** ''Broadwell-U'': SoC; two TDP classes 15 W for 2+2 and 2+3 configurations (two cores with a GT2 or GT3 GPU) as well as 28 W for 2+3 configurations. Designed to be used on motherboards with the PCH-LP chipset for Intel's

ultrabook Ultrabook is a marketing term, originated and trademarked by Intel, for a category of high-end laptop computers. They were originally marketed as featuring ultra thin form factor and light weight design without compromising battery life or per ...

and

NUC Nucs, or nucleus colonies, are small honey bee colonies created from larger colonies, packages, or captured swarms. A nuc hive is centered on a queen bee, the nucleus of the honey bee colony. Layout A nuc hive has all the features of a standard ...

platforms. Maximum supported is up to 16 GB of DDR3 or LPDDR3 memory, with DDR3-1600 and LPDDR3-1867 as the maximum memory speeds. The 2+2 configuration is scheduled for Q4 2014, while the 2+3 is estimated for Q1 2015. For Broadwell-U models with integrated 5x00 GPUs,

die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

size is 82 mm² with a total of 1.3 billion transistors, while for the models with 6100 and 6200 GPUs the die size is 133 mm² with a total of 1.9 billion transistors. ** ''Broadwell-H'': 37 W and 47 W TDP classes, for motherboards with HM86, HM87, QM87 and the new HM97 chipsets for " all-in-one" systems,

mini-ITX Mini-ITX is a motherboard form-factor, developed by VIA Technologies in 2001. They are commonly used in small-configured computer systems. Originally, they were a niche product, designed for fan-less cooling with a low power consumption archi ...

form-factor motherboards, and other small footprint formats. It was expected to come in two different variants, as single and dual chips; the dual chips (4 cores, 8 threads) would have GT3e and GT2 GPU, while a single chip ( SoC; two cores, four threads) would have GT3e GPU. Maximum supported memory is 32 GB of DDR3-1600. These are scheduled for Q2 2015. *

LGA 1150 LGA 1150, also known as Socket H3, is a zero insertion force flip-chip land grid array (LGA) CPU socket designed by Intel for CPUs built on the Haswell microarchitecture. This socket is also used by the Haswell's successor, Broad ...

socket: ** ''Broadwell-DT'': quad-core unlocked desktop version with GT3e integrated graphics ( Iris Pro 6200) and 128 MB of

eDRAM Embedded DRAM (eDRAM) is dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) integrated on the same die or multi-chip module (MCM) of an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or microprocessor. eDRAM's cost-per-bit is higher when compared to equivalen ...

L4 cache A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to a processor core, wh ...

, in a 65 W TDP class. Announced to be backward compatible with the LGA 1150 motherboards designed for Haswell processors. *

LGA 2011-1 LGA 2011, also called ''Socket R'', is a CPU socket by Intel released on November 14, 2011. It launched along with LGA 1356 to replace its predecessor, LGA 1366 (Socket B) and LGA 1567. While LGA 1356 was designed for dual-processor or ...

socket: **''Broadwell-EX'': ''Brickland'' platform, for mission-critical servers. Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) is expected to be updated to version 1.1, enabling seamless scaling beyond eight-socket systems. Maximum supported memory speeds are expected to be DDR3-1600 and DDR4-1866. Up to 24 core and 48 threads, up to 60 MB of L3 cache and 32 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, with 115–165 W TDP. * LGA 2011-v3 socket: Intel i7 6800k cpu

**''Broadwell-EP'': to be marketed as

Xeon Xeon ( ) is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded system markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same ar ...

E5-2600 v4 etc., while using the C610 Wellsburg chipset platform. Up to 22 cores and 44 threads, up to 55 MB of total cache and 40

PCI Express 3.0 PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common mo ...

lanes, with 55–160 W TDP classes. Maximum supported memory speed is quad-channel

DDR4 Double Data Rate 4 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR4 SDRAM) is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory with a high bandwidth (" double data rate") interface. Released to the market in 2014, it is a variant of dynamic ran ...

-2400. ** Broadwell-E: HEDT platform, for enthusiasts. Announced at

2016, it was released in July that year. Consisting of four processors: the 6800K, 6850K, 6900K, and the deca-core 6950X, with clock speeds ranging from 3 GHz to 4 GHz as well as up to 25 MB of L3 cache.

Instruction set extensions

Broadwell introduces some

instruction set architecture In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called an ...

extensions: *

Intel ADX Intel ADX (Multi-Precision Add-Carry Instruction Extensions) is Intel's arbitrary-precision arithmetic extension to the x86 instruction set architecture (ISA). Intel ADX was first supported in the Broadwell microarchitecture.arbitrary-precision In computer science, arbitrary-precision arithmetic, also called bignum arithmetic, multiple-precision arithmetic, or sometimes infinite-precision arithmetic, indicates that calculations are performed on numbers whose digits of precision are li ...

integer An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign ( −1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the languag ...

operations *

RDSEED 
RDRAND (for "read random"; known as Intel Secure Key Technology, previously known as Bull Mountain) is an  instruction for returning random numbers from an Intel on-chip hardware random number generator which has been seeded by an on-chip entropy s ...

for generating 16-, 32- or 64-bit random numbers from a

thermal noise A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...

entropy stream, according to NIST SP 800-90B and 800-90C Intel C++ Composer XE 2013 for Windows* Installation Guide and Release Notes
(Document number: 321414-004US) // Intel, October 4, 2012; section "3.2.4 Inline assembly and intrinsic support for Intel architecture code named Broadwell added to Composer XE 2013 Update 1", page 13 * PREFETCHW instruction *

Supervisor Mode Access Prevention Supervisor Mode Access Prevention (SMAP) is a feature of some CPU implementations such as the Intel Broadwell microarchitecture that allows supervisor mode programs to optionally set user-space memory mappings so that access to those mappings fro ...

(SMAP) optionally disallows access from kernel-space memory to user-space memory, a feature aimed at making it harder to exploit software bugs. * Transactional Synchronization Extensions: This instruction set is reintroduced for all versions of Broadwell except for Broadwell-Y because a bug that cannot be fixed via microcode update in Broadwell-Y and all versions of Haswell except for the Haswell-EX variants has been fixed with a new CPU

stepping level In integrated circuits, the stepping level or revision level is a version number that refers to the introduction or revision of one or more photolithographic photomasks within the set of photomasks that is used to pattern an integrated circuit. ...

. Erratum: In fact, among Broadwell i3, i5 and i7 CPUs, only four of them support TSX instructions (i7 5650U and 5600U, i5 5350U and 5300U); it is not even precised on Intel's website whether i5 5200U does support TSX instructions. (ark.intel.com/products/)

New features

Broadwell's

Intel Quick Sync Video Intel Quick Sync Video is Intel's brand for its dedicated video encoding and decoding hardware core. Quick Sync was introduced with the Sandy Bridge CPU microarchitecture on 9 January 2011 and has been found on the die of Intel CPUs ever since. ...

hardware video decoder adds VP8 hardware decoding and encoding support. It adds VP9 and HEVC 10-bit decoding support through the integrated GPU. HEVC decode is achieved through a combination of the fixed function video decoder and shaders. Also, it has two independent bit stream decoder (BSD) rings to process video commands on GT3 GPUs; this allows one BSD ring to process decoding and the other BSD ring to process encoding at the same time. Broadwell's integrated GPU supports on Windows

Direct3D Direct3D is a graphics application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses hardware ...

11.2,

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

4.4 (OpenGL 4.5 on

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

) and

OpenCL OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is a software framework, framework for writing programs that execute across heterogeneous computing, heterogeneous platforms consisting of central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), d ...

2.0. However, it is marketed as Direct3D-12-ready. Broadwell-E introduced Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0.

List of Broadwell processors

Desktop processors

"Broadwell-E" HEDT (14 nm)

Embedded processors

Mobile processors

Core M Ultra Low Power Mobile Processors

When a cooler or quieter mode of operation is desired, this mode specifies a lower TDP and lower guaranteed frequency versus the nominal mode.
This is the processor's rated frequency and TDP.
When extra cooling is available, this mode specifies a higher TDP and higher guaranteed frequency versus the nominal mode.

Server processors

SoC processors

Server CPUs

Single/dual socket CPUs

* Socket:

LGA 2011-3 LGA 2011, also called ''Socket R'', is a CPU socket by Intel released on November 14, 2011. It launched along with LGA 1356 to replace its predecessor, LGA 1366 (Socket B) and LGA 1567. While LGA 1356 was designed for dual-processor or ...

* Interface: PCIe 3.0

Roadmap and history

On September 10, 2013, Intel showcased the Broadwell 14 nm processor in a demonstration at IDF. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich claimed that the chip would allow systems to provide a 30 percent improvement in power use over the Haswell chips released in mid-2013. Krzanich also claimed that the chips would ship by the end of 2013; however, the shipment was delayed due to low yields from Intel's 14 nm process. On October 21, 2013, a leaked Intel roadmap indicated a late 2014 or early 2015 release of the K-series Broadwell on the

platform, in parallel with the previously announced Haswell refresh. This would coincide with the release of Intel's 9-series chipset, which would be required for Broadwell processors due to a change in power specifications for its

socket. On May 18, 2014, ''Reuters'' quoted Intel's CEO promising that Broadwell-based PCs would be on shelves for the holiday season, but probably not for the back-to-school shopping. Mobile CPUs were expected in Q4 2014 and high-performance quad-core CPUs in 2015. The mobile CPUs would benefit from the reduced energy consumption of the die shrink. On June 18, 2014, Intel told ''CNET'' that while some specialized Broadwell-based products would be out in Q4 2014, "broader availability" (including mobile CPUs) would only happen in 2015. , Broadwell CPUs were available to Intel's hardware partners in sample quantities. Intel was expected to release 17 Broadwell U series family microprocessors at CES 2015. Also, according to a leak posted on vr-zone, Broadwell-E chips would be available in 2016. On August 11, 2014, Intel unveiled formally its 14 nm manufacturing process, and indicated that mobile variants of the process would be known as ''Core M'' products. Additionally, Core M products were announced to be shipping during the end of 2014, with desktop variants shipping shortly after. With Broadwell, Intel focused mainly on laptops, miniature desktops, and all-in-one systems. This left traditional desktop users with no new socketed CPU options beyond fourth-generation Haswell, which first arrived in 2013. Even though the company finally introduced two Broadwell desktop chips in the summer of 2015, it launched its high-end sixth-generation Skylake CPUs very shortly thereafter. In September 2015, Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Client Computing Group, admitted that skipping desktops with Broadwell was a poor decision. Between the end-of-life for

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

in 2014 and the lack of new desktop chips, Intel had not given desktop PC users any good reasons to upgrade in 2015.

Releases

On September 5, 2014, Intel launched the first three Broadwell-based processors that belong to the low-TDP Core M family, Core M 5Y10, Core M 5Y10a and Core M 5Y70. On October 9, 2014, the first laptop with Broadwell Intel Core M 5Y70 CPU, Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, was launched. On October 31, 2014, four more Broadwell based CPUs were launched belonging to Core M Family, increasing the number of launched Broadwell CPUs to seven. On January 5, 2015, 17 additional Broadwell laptop CPUs were launched for the Celeron, Pentium and Core i3, i5 and i7 series. On March 31, 2016, Intel officially launched 14 nm Broadwell-EP Xeon E5 V4 CPUs. On May 30, 2016, Intel officially launched 14 nm Broadwell-E Core i7 69xx/68xx processor family.

Notes

References

External links

Intel to launch Broadwell "U" series CPUs at CES 2015
{{IntelProcessorRoadmap Computer-related introductions in 2014 Intel x86 microprocessors Intel microarchitectures Transactional memory