First Haswell PCs to have buggy USB 3.0 due to flaw in chipset

[Arthur]

It might be a good idea to avoid the first batch of Core i5/i7-4xx0 based PCs and LGA1150 motherboards.

 

Source: Tech PowerUp

 

Intel issued a product-change notification (PCN) to partners in the motherboard industry, informing them of a new C2 stepping of the 8-series "Lynx Point" chipset. The stepping introduces a metal layers change that fixes the USB 3.0 remuneration erratum, which causes devices plugged into USB 3.0 ports to fail to reinitialize after waking up from sleep states such as S3, requiring uses to unplug and replug them, which could get particularly irritating for people with external RAID devices that rely on USB 3.0 for host connectivity.

 

According to the PCN, the first socket LGA1150 motherboards in the market may not feature C2-stepping chipset. It predicts samples to be available to motherboard manufacturers by 19 April 2013; availability of qualification data (when Intel has finalized design after taking feedback from partners), by 1 July 2013; customers should be ready to receive C2-stepping chips by 31 July. These dates indicate that the very first batches of socket LGA1150 motherboards will still feature C1-stepping chipset that are affected by the erratum, and if you can't live with it, you should ideally wait until late-August or mid-September for the first motherboards with C2-stepping chipset to make it to the markets. Intel expects to launch its 4th generation Core "Haswell" processors and compatible LGA1150 motherboards by mid-June.

 

http://i.imgur.com/MSGKK4v.jpg

[SYNACK]

It was expected that Intel were working on a steamer, they have been delaying it for ages and had to push out a point revision of the old stuff to patch the gap a little. This is probably an oversight thanks to their stretched and disrupted schedule, it may also not be the last 'little surprise' to shake loose with this generation of CPU and it's chipsets.

[Arthur]

it may also not be the last 'little surprise' to shake loose with this generation of CPU and its chipsets.

Here's another little surprise...

 

Is your power supply ready for Haswell? « VR-Zone

 

Intel's 4th Generation Core Processors (codenamed Haswell, follow-up to last year's Ivy Bridge), is slated to be released later this year in early June, bringing with it the usual inter-generational IPC (instructions per clock) improvements, new x86 instructions like AVX2 for increased parallelism, a more potent iGPU for gaming/compute and fine grained power optimizations/gating that allow the chip to transition in and out of deeper idle states to save power.

 

According to our sources, the new C6/C7 power states on the Haswell-Shark Bay platform will require the system power supply to be able to maintain a minimum current load of 0.05Amps on the CPU exclusive 12V2 rail (0.6W).

 

Older or bargain basement power supply units may be unable to achieve this, and might become unstable or trigger a UVP/OVP shutdown once the system enters the C6/C7 power states. This is because the previous ATX12V v2.3 design guidelines for Ivy Bridge and its predecessors only called for a minimum load of 0.5 Amps on the CPU power rail, hence a less sophisticated internal feedback loop/protection could be used in older or cost-reduced offerings, which will not support the new standards.

 

Most worryingly, PSU manufacturers (even the enthusiast grade ones) do not usually report the minimum load on their spec sheets, so it is virtually impossible for us to come up with a list of supported units at this time. To ensure a smooth transition, mainboard designers and system integrators have been told to implement a BIOS-level toggle to enable/disable the new C6/C7 power states.

[Arthur]

PSU compatibility lists...

 

• Corsair (www.corsair.com/us/blog/haswell-compatibility-with-corsair-power-supplies/)
   
  http://i.imgur.com/Tss2ZDz.png
   
   
  
• Seasonic (www.seasonic.com/new/twevent20130510.htm)
   
  http://i.imgur.com/uGZG9qk.png
   
   
  
• Silverstone (www.silverstonetek.com/downloads/PSU/2013_H_CPU_support.pdf)
   
  http://i.imgur.com/HkLAAcT.png