More information on Intel's Ivy Bridge planned launch has come to light over the weekend. Although a recent rumor downplayed a possible delay, saying that quad-core notebook CPUs and all desktop parts remain on track for April, the company's executive vice-president Sean Maloney has now confirmed to The Financial Times that there is in fact a delay and that he "thinks" the 22nm chips will only go on sale in June.
That's still within the second quarter schedule that Intel had envisioned but the launch was set back roughly 8-10 weeks from the original April target. Maloney denied reports that the upcoming Ivy Bridge processors had been pushed back because PC vendors still had a huge inventory of Sandy Bridge notebooks. Instead, he cited the new 22nm manufacturing process as the main reason behind the delay.
It's unclear if the delay affects both desktop and mobile parts or just the latter. Although it would seem all Ivy Bridge products have been pushed back, VR-Zone believes desktop parts are still scheduled for April, or at least partners will have early access to them to show off their new motherboards at CeBIT next month.
The delay underlines the problems chip makers will face with increasingly smaller and more complex process nodes. Luckily for Intel, weak competition from AMD means they can afford to take their time and get it right.