Potential New iMacs Delayed by Sandy Bridge Chipset Design ‘Flaw’

This week, Intel said the company identified a design flaw in the chipset that supports its latest Sandy Bridge Core processors.

Customers that likely include Apple are to receive updated chips in late February, Intel said. This may affect the rollout schedule of potential new iMac computers, AppleInsider speculates.

"As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel 6 Series, code-named Cougar Point, and has implemented a silicon fix," the company said in yesterday’s official announcement.

"In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives," Intel said.

The chipmaker confirmed that computer vendors and other Intel customers that had already bought what could potentially be affected chipsets or systems would not be left in the cold.

“Intel will work with its OEM partners to accept the return of the affected chipsets, and plans to support modifications or replacements needed on motherboards or systems," the company said.

Intel said it would most likely deliver the correct version of the chipset to customers in late February.

However, it does not expect "full volume recovery" until April.

This led to speculation that any iMacs featuring the chipset are unlikely to hit the market for at least the following couple of months.

AppleInsider also claims that it has received “unverified” reports that Apple plans to deplete inventory of existing iMacs over the next 60 days.

Finally, Intel said that the chip design error is expected to reduce revenue by approximately $300 million.

Specifically, the fourth quarter gross margin percentage is to be cut by approximately 4 percentage points from the previously reported 67.5 percent, Intel said,

The first quarter of 2011 will be charged by 2 percentage points, and the full-year gross margin percentage by one percentage point.