New evidence suggests that Intel is planning a tiered roll-out of its next-generation Ivy Bridge processor family, announcing the quad-core chips in April and the mobile-centric dual-core versions in June.
Following reports from numerous industry sources that the launch of Ivy Bridge will be delayed until June, Intel was forced to
admit that there had been a schedule slip. While Intel's Sean Maloney claimed the delay would see no Ivy Bridge chips reaching customers until June, Jon Carvill claimed that the schedule '
has only been impacted by a few weeks' as a result of what is believed to be either oversupply problems of current-generation Sandy Bridge parts or yield issues with the new parts.
Now, it looks like both Maloney and Carvill were both right: while quad-core parts will be appearing towards the end of April, it will be June before Ivy Bridge dual-core chips arrive on the market.
The updated schedule comes courtesy of Swedish technology site
Sweclockers, which claims to have discovered Intel's updated launch schedule. Under the new timings, the supporting chipsets for the Ivy Bridge platform - Z77, Z75, H77, and B75 - will be launched on Ivy Bridge's original launch date of 8th April.
This launch will be followed by actual chips later in the month, on 29th April. These parts will, however, only be quad-core desktop and mobile parts comprising the Core i5-3450, Core i5-3550, Core i5-3550S, Corei5-3570K, Core i5-3570T, Core i7-3770, Core i7-3770K, Core i7-3770S, Core i7-3770T, Core i7-3720QM, Core i7-3820QM, and the Core i7-2920XM.
Processors missing from the April launch, largely mobile-centric dual-core parts, will appear on the 3rd June. This release will add the Core i5-3470, Core i5-3470S, Core i5-3470T, Core i5-3475S, Core i5-3570 and Core i5-3570S desktop parts, along with the Core i5-3320M, Core i5-3360M, Core i5-3427U, Core i7-3520M and Core i7-3667U mobile parts.
Finally,
CPU World claims that the budget-friendly Core i3 family will be launched in the third quarter of this year. The chips due to drop at that point are the Core i3-3220, Core i3-3220T, Core i3-3225, Core i3-3240, Core i3-3240T, and the Core i3-3217U.
Intel, naturally, isn't confirming the leaked launch schedule, stating only that it '
refuses to comment on rumour or speculation regarding unannounced products.'
