Chipsets: Z87 Gets Comfortable News

Let’s not minCe Words here: PC chipsets are going to have a pretty boring stretch for most of next year. With the fresh Z87 chipset here, Intel isn’t expected to offer much in chipset-land until the end of next year. That’s when the company is expected to ship its replacement for Ivy Bridge-E, called Haswell-E, with the new X99 chipset. Full details of X99 haven’t been disclosed but we’re guessing the chipset will bring an updated Peripheral Controller Hub, i.e., south bridge, with loads of SATA 6Gb/s ports and native USB 3.0 support. DDR4 support will also come on X99 but that’s not a function of the chipset, as the memory controller is integrated into the CPU. We’d love to also see 10Gb Ethernet, but, well, that doesn’t look to be happening anytime soon. Intel’s mobile-focused Broadwell will likely get its own chipset that will have some compatibility with Haswell CPUs, but we’re still convinced Broadwell will be mobile-only and come in BGA form. That means Broadwell will likely live only in NUC- style machines, notebooks, and all-in-one PCs.