Intel Bloomfield: The Luxury CPU Line
 

The more I think about Bloomfield, the more it looks like a radical break for Intel, and I'm not talking about performance.

What Intel is doing with Bloomfield is essentially expanding its Extreme processors into an Extreme processor line. Bloomfields will have their own socket, incompatible with any eventual lower-end Nehalem. It will initially need an X58 motherboard, and don't hold your breath expecting more reasonably priced Nehalem chipsets, needing three channels of DDR3 RAM.

This is going to be wonderful for those premium and luxury PC lines. Configure systems using the mainstream and premium lines, and you'll find yourself saying, "Why should I pay a good deal more for the same components in the premium line?" Bloomfields will allow the upper-end lines to distinguish themselves, indeed, this is probably the main reason why they exist.

This is what Intel does when AMD isn't around to constrain it, slow the pace, maximize the profits (and AMD would do exactly the same thing if the shoe were on the other foot). This is the world without AMD, and so long as AMD doesn't have CPU that can compete on the higher-end, that's the way it's going to be.

http://overclockers.com/tips01375/

As long as Intel keeps building very high-end products for those who want and can afford them, I don't mind. Most people are going to buy cheap boxes from discounters anyway. The world without AMD that I dread is one in which Intel feels no need to produce more powerful processors. AMD embarrassed Intel by producing a clearly superior processor in the K9. In doing so they woke the sleeping giant. I'm just glad that Intel's tick-tock strategy for crushing AMD is producing such powerful processors so fast.

all we can hope and pray for is that AMD keeps up and offers competitive product, keeping Intel sharp

I don't know about that article. I see things where if Intel wants to build a low-cost system for the budget market, they need a cheap budget platform. Splitting the CPU into two types means they can better target the low end, and when designing the high-end they can design specifically for performance and make costs secondary.

It makes perfect business sense to split the market into budget/performance. Intel has always targeted new Quadcore chips at $266 price points, same thing with the $266/283 2.66Ghz Nehalem.

High-end P35, X38, X48, even high-end P45 boards were always expensive, I don't see why people wait to complain now if X58 costs somewhere in the same $250 ballpark.

If anything I think splitting into Lynnfield/Bloomfield will alow better bargains through cheaper platforms... Budget Intel platforms have always cost more than AMD's budget platforms, thanks to the chipsets. I suspect that will change with Lynnfield.

Just seems like people don't want / don't like change. :)

AMD did the exact same thing with S754 vs S939

Not quite, AMD launched Socket 754 and that was the only one, it was their high-end socket before they quickly replaced it with 939... only then did S754 become a low end budget platform.

Ok; Intel will be doing the exact same opposite thing; They'll first release their "S939" and then afterwards launch their budget "S754"; the outcome after 1 year is the same though; two platforms for same generation CPU