Intel and Google have made some great things in the past, like the most recent additions to the Chromebook family. Actually, most of the Chromebooks that are running right now are powered by various generations of Intel’s processors. We have Samsung Exynos-powered and Rockchip-powered models, but Intel has the majority here, and its market share will only grow with this latest news and generation of Intel chips, named Broadwell.
The fifth generation of Intel’s computer processors are heading to Chromebooks this year. That’s great news, especially given that they have some changes in store. Namely, as with most new iterations of a processor, comes the expected improvement in processing power. But we also can expect a noticeable battery life improvement with these new Broadwell processors. We’re going to cover the Broadwell chip and some of what it can do and has in store in the next part, so skip the next paragraph or so if you just want to know about the new Chromebooks
For you folks that want to know a little bit more about Intel’s Broadwell chip, this is for you. First, it’s the fifth generation of Intel’s processors. As with new generations and as I said earlier, they will likely be more powerful and feature better battery efficiency. But the technical specs, the ones you might find buried in some description somewhere, are here for your convenience. Now, the fun part. The Broadwell chips are based on the latest architecture by Intel, and are compatible with chipsets called ‘Wildcat Point’, the 9-series set, that can work with a component that most others can’t. These Broadwell chips can use Intel smaller-footprint SATA SSDs, for smaller physical storage space within the device. These new Broadwell chips also support a higher-speed read-while-write speed, so that data can both be accessed and created faster on the device’s storage. And, even though this won’t likely appear in any Chrome OS device, the Broadwell and Wildcat Point setups can utilize up to six SATA ports, and access them at up to 6 gigabits per second, which is an improvement over the previous capability of four at six and two at three. These are more than welcome improvements.
On to the Chromebook aspect now. First and foremost, the Broadwell chip will appear in some of the new Chromebooks that will come out this spring and summer. Since all we know, is that three new boards that utilize Broadwells have been added to the Chrome OS repository, there will be a maximum of three new Chrome devices will show up featuring them. We can also assume that the new Acer 15-inch Chromebook likely started out as yet another Broadwell chipset. Three new Chrome devices will come out, but we know nothing about the specs or manufacturers. This means lots of possible news for you to enjoy, and three new devices to get people online in the fastest way possible. Which manufacturers do you hope get to use one of these new processor setups, and what makes them deserving? What kind of specifications do you think that manufacturers will put into the 2015 lineup of Chromebooks and Chromeboxes? Let us know down below.