14 DAY TRIAL // Lynx Point, the 8-series chipset that will support Haswell fourth-generation central processing units, has turned out to have a much worse problem than previous reports suggested.
Not too long ago, we got wind of the fact that Intel's Haswell platform had USB 3.0 problems, so we were understandably concerned.
A design flaw was discovered in the chipset, one that causes devices connected to the integrated USB 3.0 controller to be disconnected when the system wakes up from S3 (suspend-to-RAM) state.
No data is lost, but the issue does mean people may have to keep replugging their flash drives or other gadgets.
We suspected that Intel would not let something like this stand in the way of its timely CPU and chipset release.
It turns out that we were most likely right, although it isn't all good news. According to Hardware.info, Haswell will, indeed, come out on time, and so will Lynx Point, but the problem won't be fixed.
Apparently, the defect needs a complete hardware change, so only a subsequent revision of Lynx Point will be free of it.
Thus, buyers of first-generation LGA 1150 motherboards should be ready to cope with the potential annoyance described above.
Ironically, this is not the first time that Intel botches the integration of a connectivity interface. Back in 2011, the 6-series “Cougar Point” chipset had a faulty SATA 3 Gbps controller, but was a major flaw that made the ports gradually fail.
This time, at the very least, buyers of first-generation Lynx Point mainboards will only have a mild irritation to live with.
We do not know how long it will take for that first revision to debut. Intel probably won't give an ETA any time soon, since it might just give prospective buyers the incentive to, yet again, hold off on buying a new PC or upgrading their existing one.