Intel Server Chipset Driver (10.1.18019.8144) adds support for a mysterious and unannounced H310D chipset. The name insinuates that the new chipset is most likely based on the original H310 chipset, which launched last year.
The 14nm manufacturing process has been Intel's bread and butter for several years now. The past year has been pretty tough on Intel as the company struggled with 14nm processor shortages. Intel initially produced the entry-level H310 chipset on the 14nm process, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The chipmaker was eventually forced to backpedal its H310 chipset production to the 22nm process. In a nutshell, that was how the H310C, sometimes branded as H310 R2.0, chipset was born.
Chipset | Lithography | Device ID | Launch Date |
*Intel H310D | 14nm | A315 | 2019 |
Intel H310C | 22nm | A2CA | 2018 |
Intel H310 | 14nm | A303 | 2018 |
*Specifications in the table are unconfirmed
Fast-forward to present day, and Intel is sneaking in a third revision of the H310 chipset. The H310D chipset has a new device ID, but there's no information on whether the H310D will arrive with any significant changes in comparison to the previous two variants. If you recall, the H310C chipset brought native support for the Windows 7 operating system.
Back in June, there was a rumor going around the hardware community that Intel was allegedly outsourcing some of its 14nm processor production to Samsung. However, our own sources confirmed that Intel and Samsung were indeed meeting secretly to talk about production but for much simpler designs, such as chipsets for example. It makes a lot of sense since chipsets are relatively easier to produce than processors. Samsung has a pretty mature 14nm process node and the production capacity to undertake Intel's orders without problems.
If we have to take an educated guess, there's a fairly good chance that the H310D chipset will probably come out of the 14nm cooking oven. It's just a matter of whose oven is it going to be - Intel or Samsung.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.