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  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Intel calls last orders on 300-series motherboard chipsets

(2021/01/06)


Intel is to sunset its 300-series motherboard chipsets, according to Chipzilla's prodict change notifications (PCN).

A [1]Product Change Notification (PCN) published by Chipzilla [PDF] earlier this week sets out the discontinuation schedule, with the deadline for last orders set for 23 July 2021. After that point, orders become non-cancellable and non-refundable. Intel expects the last units to ship by 28 January 2022 at the latest.

Launched in 2017, the 300-series chipset was designed to cater for Intel's eight and ninth-generation Core processors, and uses the LGA 1151 socket. The semiconductor giant has named seven specific desktop variants to be culled (Z370, H370, Z390, B360, H310C, B365, and H310D), as well as one mobile variant (QMS380).

In a separate [2]PCN [PDF] published by Intel, it confirmed the desktop platform controller hubs (PCH) Q370 and H310, as well as mobile PCHs including HM370, QM370, and CM246 are also going to be discontinued. The last product order date is set for 23 July and the last shipment date is 28 January 2021.

Intel released the successor to the 300 series last year, called the 400 series. These bring with them support for the newest generation of Comet Lake processors, as well as a new socket design called LGA 1200.

Separately, Intel is expected to release the 500-series chipsets later this month, coinciding with this year's edition of the CES trade show. These will likely include support for PCIe 4.0 (which AMD has supported since 2019, starting with its X570 chipset), as well as Intel's 14nm Rocket Lake processors.

This news follows a flood of product culls from Intel as it tidies up its lineup ahead of future product releases.

The most significant withdrawal happened on 7 December, when [3]Intel formally announced [PDF] the discontinuation of its ninth-generation Coffee Lake Refresh (often referred to as Coffee Lake-R) chipsets, affecting both desktop and laptop hardware. This wholesale purge extends to both entry-level Celeron and Pentium Gold platforms, as well as the top-tier Core i9-9900K.

As with the 300 series, Intel has outlined a staggered approach, with the last orders expected by 25 June before the entire lineup is formally killed by 24 December. ®

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[1] http://qdms.intel.com/dm/i.aspx/6967A229-DE06-47A4-8348-6C9C559FBE54/PCN117972-00.pdf

[2] http://qdms.intel.com/dm/i.aspx/6967A229-DE06-47A4-8348-6C9C559FBE54/PCN117972-00.pdf

[3] http://qdms.intel.com/dm/i.aspx/7F05B145-6AAC-45C1-91BD-2C72E6D86CD5/PCN117911-00.pdf

[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/

Elite Nerds Create Linux Distro From Hell

HELL, MICHIGAN -- A group of long-time Linux zealots and newbie haters
have thrown together a new Linux distro called Hellix that is so
user-hostile, so anti-newbie, so cryptic, and so old-fashioned that it
actually makes MS-DOS look like a real operating system. Said the founder
of the project, "I'm sick and tired of the Windowsification of the Linux
desktop in a fruitless attempt to make the system more appealing to
newbies, PHBs, and MCSEs. Linux has always been for nerds only, and we
want to make sure it stays that way!"

One of the other Bastard Distributors From Hell explained, "In the last
five years think of all the hacking effort spent on Linux... and for what?
We have nothing to show for it but half-finished Windows-like desktops, vi
dancing paperclips, and graphical front-ends to configuration files. Real
nerds use text files for configuration, darnit, and they like it! It's
time to take a stand against the hordes of newbies that are polluting our
exclusive operating system."

One Anonymous Coward said, "This is so cool... It's just like Unix back in
the good old days of the 70's when men were men and the only intuitive
interface was still the nipple."