14 DAY TRIAL // Intel is reportedly postponing the introduction of its P45 chipset from the original release date in May to mid-June. According to some sources located at Intel's motherboard manufacturing partners, the chipset will be introduced later this year because it has some compatibility issues between the chipset's PCI Express x16 port and graphics cards.
However, the same sources noted that the chip manufacturer will solve the technical issues with the chipset in the following two or four weeks after the initial launch date. This means that the chip will be ready for the Computex official launch anyway.
Other motherboard manufacturers reported that there would be no technical issues with the chip but Intel is still holding the P45 chipset off the shelves in order to get rid of its existing P45 chipsets that have piled up in the company's warehouses. If there is a real compatibility issue with the chipset, it will severely damage the company's image on the market.
Despite the fact that the chip will be officially introduced during the Computex 2008, the first media previews of the motherboards based on the P45 chipset will take place In April. Judging by the previous experience with the P35 chipset, Intel is expected to allow motherboard manufacturers to start shipping P45-based products before the chipset gets official.
The first motherboards are expected to hit the retailers' shelves sometime in May. However, if you are in a hurry, you can always take a X48-based motherboard, that have finally reached retail stage earlier this month.
MSI has already announced the P45 Diamond model, that will come with a plethora of SATA ports (six native ports and several others form a silicon image chipset). Its built-in PCI-Express lane splitter chip from IDT allows a single PCI-Express x16 lane to be split into two x8 ones for enhanced CrossFireX.