I’m very lucky to be one of the few people with a Haswell-based Ultrabook. There are even fewer people that have a Connected-Standby capable Haswell Ultrabook and when you add 3G, FullHD, NFC, GPS, HD5000 and a great looking build, you’re talking about leading edge. What a shame this Ultrabook isn’t available to buy. Developers will have access to it (I’m working on getting information as to how developers can get one) but end users will have to wait because this product has been made by Intel as a showcase and developer platform. I’m not a developer so I’m just going to tell you about how good, how well-rounded and complete this Ultrabook is. Let’s hope manufacturers read this and that it influences their decisions in making their Ultrabooks. For others, this is your benchmark for a classic Ultrabook.

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Haswell reference design shown at GDC 2013

At GDC 2013, Intel announced that their next-gen Haswell graphics will support a new bit of tech called PixelSync as well as DirectX 11.1. PixelSync on Hawell graphics enables two rendering techniques called ASVM and AOIT which can cost a standard GPU up to 80% of it’s performance but runs smoothly with Haswell’s integrated graphics. The developers behind Grid 2 are using Haswell’s new tech to bring graphically rich games to the masses.

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One of the aims of attending the Intel Developer Forum last week for me was to find out as much as possible about 2013, Haswell and what it means for Ultrabooks. I’m sure there’s more detail to come soon (and possibly, a new roadmap) but I came away with a lot of useful information that I’ve summarized below. What is clear is that Haswell is more about mobility than any other Core CPU to date. It will extend down into tablet territory enabling detachable screens and new form factors. There will be a huge focus on active standby; the claimed 20x lower idle power should equate to multi-day ‘active’ idle. A ‘dual slice’ GPU will feature in Ultrabooks

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HD 3000 in Intel’s second generation Core ‘Sandy Bridge’ processor was a pretty big step forward for integrated graphics — it adds significant gaming capabilities to thin, light, and efficient Ultrabooks, without the need for discrete graphics. HD 4000, introduced with the third and current-gen Core ‘Ivy Bridge’ processor took things one step further by doubling the performance over Sandy Bridge. With the fourth and next-gen Core ‘Haswell’ processor, slated to launch in Ultrabooks and other systems in 2013, Intel is once again doubling performance over the previous generation.

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