Apollo Lake CPUs not degrading after all...

[Vulkan HeStan]

My previous post

 

The new(er) Article

 

Intel can't seem to make its mind up... 

 

The article on the 11th Sept:

Quote

There are no changes to the B-1 Stepping of the Intel® Celeron® N3350, J3355, J3455 Processors and Intel Pentium N4200 Processor as they meet all Intel quality goals for PC Usage and will continue to be available. The F-1 Apollo Lake Intel Celeron N3350, J3355, J3455 Processors and Intel Pentium N4200 Processor meet all Intel quality goals for PC Usage. With IOTG's operational decision to converge onto a single package for all of the IOTG Apollo Lake Processors, the F-1 stepping Celeron N3350, J3355, J3455 Processors and Pentium N4200 Processor has a slight increase in Z height compared to the B-1 Stepping.

Then on the 13th:

Quote

After an extended period of back and forth with Intel, we have confirmed that the existing B-1 stepping chips do suffer from the LPC bus degradation issue, which is rectified via a firmware update. This issue is classified as Errata APL47, as listed here (PDF). When the B-1 Stepping is used in accordance to the published specifications and design guidelines, it meets PC Client and IOT usage requirements.

Again, sorry this article is late, I'm busy and haven't had time to keep you guys posted.

 

Its seems Intel is trying to tell us:

 

Personally, I won't buy a computer with one of these processors in, but it seems they're okay for the average Joe to browse his emails with (which is all you can really do with celeron). 

[5x5]

Well that's good. At least people won't have to worry and replace stuff

[19_blackie_73]

Conclusion: If changing something that would cost money it is easier to change your goals

/s

[Froody129]

Looks like someone didn't have the right Intel

[The King of the Undead]

[ravenshrike]

So how much of a performance hit did the firmware update make since the issue was pretty clearly a thermal one?

[thorhammerz]

6 hours ago, Vulkan HeStan said:

Personally, I won't buy a computer with one of these processors in, but it seems they're okay for the average Joe to browse his emails with (which is all you can really do with celeron). 

Isn't that what these units are bought for in the first place (assuming you're a retail consumer and not someone from IT trying to specc out the lowest-possible-config-because-muh-cost-cutting)?

 

Super-basic & simple tasks for Grandma / Uncle-Joe / little-Tommy to browse emails, social-media, video streaming on a (potentially quite shitty) <= 1080p screen in a almost-tablet-but-not-really-a-tablet mobile-but-not-truly-mobile device (e.g. Chromebooks or similar tiered devices)?

 

Spoiler

And at that point, you (assuming again, as a retail consumer) might as well just buy a newer smart phone / tablet for a very similar amount of money - it'd probably run a lot faster too since you wouldn't be dealing with the Windows bloat.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, thorhammerz said:

Isn't that what these units are bought for in the first place (assuming you're a retail consumer and not someone from IT trying to specc out the lowest-possible-config-because-muh-cost-cutting)?

 

Super-basic & simple tasks for Grandma / Uncle-Joe / little-Tommy to browse emails, social-media, video streaming on a (potentially quite shitty) <= 1080p screen in a almost-tablet-but-not-really-a-tablet mobile-but-not-truly-mobile device (e.g. Chromebooks or similar tiered devices)?

 

  Reveal hidden contents

And at that point, you (assuming again, as a retail consumer) might as well just buy a newer smart phone / tablet for a very similar amount of money - it'd probably run a lot faster too since you wouldn't be dealing with the Windows bloat.

 

This kind of CPU is quite common in thin-clients. There are tons out there on desks worldwide. I am sure someone is a little concerned at Intel for this very reason.

[thorhammerz]

23 minutes ago, Phill104 said:

This kind of CPU is quite common in thin-clients.

Hence the retail-consumer-and-not-IT notes sprinkled into my post.

23 minutes ago, Phill104 said:

There are tons out there on desks worldwide. I am sure someone is a little concerned at Intel for this very reason.

That I definitely agree with. Well, so long as nothing actually fails while inside the warranty period.

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, thorhammerz said:

Hence the retail-consumer-and-not-IT notes sprinkled into my post.

That I definitely agree with. Well, so long as nothing actually fails while inside the warranty period.

Warranty period can be a moot point in the corporate world. Often things like this are sold with 5 year support packs. So when manufacturers like Fujitsu, Lenovo, HP and Dell etc see a line that is failing well above predicted MTBF rates, it not only costs in servicing, but affects their reliable image to the customer. 

[S w a t s o n]

The true answer is "Yes, but actually yes" basically the old stepping has the problem but intel doesnt think it will impact pc usage (15 year life span). It was designated for iot with long life requirements so they've released a new stepping for that. The problem does exist.

[williamcll]

It must suck to use use a lower end x86 chip these days.