Intel withdraws Apollo Lake processor degradation issues

Intel will continue to provide the B1 stepping of the Apollo Lake processors Celeron N3350, J3355 and J3455 and the Pentium N4200, in addition to the new F1 stepping. The company has withdrawn the report about degradation problems with the chips.

Customers who do not require IOTG Long Life Product Availability can continue to purchase the B1 stepping of the Celeron N3350, J3355 and J3455 and the Pentium N4200 as the stepping meets Intel’s requirements for PC use. Intel reports this in a revised product change notice. Intel’s Internet of Things Group will now deliver the overhauled F1 stepping to customers who require long-life availability.

The notification differs from the product change notice that Intel published on Tuesday about the F1 stepping of the processors in question. In that document, Intel talked about problems with low pin count, the real time clock and the SD card interface that caused the signals to degrade faster than Intel has as a quality requirement after several years of use. Intel stated that the B1 stepping was discontinued and was replaced by the F1 stepping, which can be recognized by the E suffix in the name of the processor.

In response to inquiries from Tom’s Hardware, Intel did not provide details about the withdrawal of the earlier product notification. The company does repeat the claim that both the B1 and F1 steppings have been found suitable for PC use.