Rumor mill: Intel is rumored to finally release its 10th generation Comet Lake desktop chips next month, but the CPUs could be another product delayed by the coronavirus disruption, according to a new report.
While the Comet Lake laptop processors arrived last summer, the launch date of the desktop versions is still a mystery. But we now might have a better idea of when they'll arrive, thanks to Unikoshardware.com, which has posted pictures of the Intel Core i5-10400 and a slide from the company.
The interesting part of the slide is the 'Product Introduction Date (Press embargo)' section, which reads: "Press News Embargo: April 13 - June 26, 2020."
We don't know if the slide is genuine, so take this with a pinch of salt, but it suggests there is no set embargo date for the chips' launch. That could mean Intel is anticipating missing the April release date, with the CPUs potentially not launching until June.
If there really is a delay, it can almost certainly be attributed to the coronavirus. As noted by Tom's Hardware, it wouldn't make sense for Intel to release the chips if its partners can't produce supporting motherboards in time.
The more optimistic and likely alternative is that Intel will be officially announcing the Comet Lake desktop chips on April 13, before introducing the various CPUs between then and June 26, each one with its own embargo date.
We're expecting to see over twenty 10th-gen Comet Lake desktop chips, including the 10-core/20-thread i9-10900K that replaces the i9-9900K. Leaks say the flagship CPU will feature 125W TDP, a base frequency of 3.7GHz, and boost to 5.1GHz. The chips will have hyperthreading enabled from the most expensive model all the way down to the Pentium G6400T, unlike the current-gen CPUs, where it's only on the i9 series.