14 DAY TRIAL // A leaked Intel roadmap that was recently published on a Chinese website comes to confirm the previous rumors which stated the Santa Clara-based company plans to postpone the launch of its Ivy Bridge processors until the second quarter of 2012.
Previous reports suggested that Intel intended to release the first Ivy Bridge processors at the beginning of 2012, most probably during the CES fair, as the company has done with its Sandy Bridge and Arrandale chips.
However, these rumors have been dismissed by a report that made its appearance at the end of last week, and a recent Intel roadmap comes to confirm these allegations.
According to this document, Ivy Bridge won't make its appearance until March or April 2012 and will be accompanied by the H77, Z75 and Z77 chipsets.
One reason for this delay could be that Intel needs more time to ramp up its 22nm Tri-Gate production as the company doesn't have enough fabs to keep up with the demand of Ivy Bridge CPUs.
Intel's Ivy Bridge processors are a die 22nm shrink of the Sandy Bridge core and feature the same architecture with a few minor tweaks and an improved graphics core.
The on-die GPU will receive DirectX 11 support as well as 30% more EUs than the Sandy Bridge graphics core.
Other CPU features include better AVX performance, an integrated PCI Express 3.0 controller as well as native USB 3.0 support thanks to the Panther Point chipsets.
PCI Express 3.0 should double the bandwidth available for add-in cards from 500MB/s per lane to 1GB/s per lane.
Once released, Ivy Bridge is quickly expected to take the place of the current SNB chips in Intel's lineup.
Outside of Intel, AMD also seems to experience difficulties with its next-generation processor architecture, code named Bulldozer, as recent reports state these chips aren't expected to make their appearance in retail channels until Q3 2011. (via Zol.com.cn)
