14 DAY TRIAL // There has been a fair bit of talk about Intel's upcoming series of processors and platforms, with practically all rumors implying that they should all come out, or at least be officially unveiled, as early as October this year. Still, some won't debut before early 2011, and reports have now emerged to apparently confirm this, even stating that, predictably, the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show will be the site where the so-called Post-Cougar Point platforms will be showcased.
Cougar Point is the codename of the 6 series of chipsets. This line will be officially launched in October 2010 and will be followed up by the Sugar Bay, slated to show up in early January, 2011. This platform will be released alongside a Sandy Bridge quad-core central processing unit with an integrated graphics. Motherboards powered by the P67 chipset should also make an appearance around the same time, in order to address the needs of the mainstream.
Sugar Bay will support Hyper-threading and Advanced Turbo Boost technology and will welcome new Sandy bridge CPUs. Intel is also expected to unleash the Waimea Bay platform, intended for high-end markets. It includes a Sandy Bridge E CPU (with built-in memory controller, support for DDR3 2666 frequencies and PCI Express connection) and motherboards constructed around the Patsburg chipset. As for the server market, the Bromolov platform should also welcome Sandy Bridge processors. Finally, the Huron River will start shipping this very year and notebooks based on it will appear as early as the second half of January.
These are, according to Digitimes, the short to mid-term plans of the Santa Clara, California-based chip giant. As for the long-term, Intel supposedly intends to bring out the Ivy bridge processor, based on 22nm process technology, in 2012. Predictably, the chip maker declined to comment on rumors about unannounced products.