Intel Ivy Bridge can debut in March

Intel Corp.’s 22-nm Ivy Bridge CPUs will likely launch in March, one quarter later than originally planned, but well within Intel’s revised timeframe of “Spring 2012.”

Intel originally targeted late 2011 for Ivy Bridge, in time for launch at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but that timeframe had been pushed back by the firm owing to delays. Intel’s current Sandy Bridge generation of CPUs was unveiled at CES in January 2011.

In an earnings call earlier this week, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said Ivy Bridge had now gone in to volume production, and would be available by the spring. Analysts, however, said they believe Intel should be able to start shipping by the end of 2012’s first quarter, information bolstered by reports from Taiwan claiming motherboard makers had cited a March launch date.

Analyst David Kanter of Real World Technologies said, explaining that Intel will probably ship to OEMs in early to mid Q1:

Expect to see products on the early side of Q1. The delays with Ivy Bridge are related to ramping the new 22-nm manufacturing, which is understandable given the move from a planar process to FinFETs.

The first iterations of Ivy Bridge processors purportedly come in both dual and quad core variants, alongside new chipsets to replace the current Z8 and P67 versions, with the upcoming Intel Z77 and Z75 according to unconfirmed reports from Taiwanese motherboard makers. Those sources added that the TDP of the dual core models would likely be 35W and 55W while the quad cores would come with TDP ratings of 45W, 65W, and 77W.

Kanter said adding:

Meanwhile, Intel’s Xeon E5 server offerings will also launch later than expected. “The Xeon E5 slipped a quarter, primarily due to platform level validation and lack of competitive pressure. AMD’s Interlagos is somewhat late as well.

Xeon E5 processors are all Sandy Bridge-EP, while Xeon E3 is Ivy Bridge, but only single socket.

Kanter concluded:

Intel had always hedged the timeline for the E5 series, partially because of the platform changes such as integrated PCI-E 3.0.

Source: EETimes