Mass Launch of 22 nm Ivy Bridge CPUs is Delayed Until June

From DailyTech: Just months ago at the 2011 Intel Developer Forum, executives with the world's largest traditional personal computer chipmaker, Intel Corp. (INTC) were all boast and bravado, saying their competitors were years behind in process. Indeed, the talk about the dramatic gains in terms of power efficiency and clock speed using Intel's proprietary 22 nm FinFET 3D-transistor design sounded very impressive.

But the first chinks in the armor perhaps began to show at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, when Intel was caught faking its 22 nm Ivy Bridge DirectX 11 demo during its ultrabook pitch. Intel brushed off the trickery, but the incident raised some serious questions. If the 22 nm chip was launching in April at production volume and had already been taped out in final form, why would Intel have to use canned video? Why couldn't it show its real product? Why the obfuscation??

Well, DigiTimes is reporting that multiple OEM sources have shared that Ivy Bridge is being delayed from April to June. While not a huge delay, the report raises questions about whether Intel's 22 nm process is as stable as it claims.

To be fair, the OEMs appear to be claiming that the delay is due to inventories:
Because most first-tier notebook vendors are having trouble digesting their Sandy Bridge notebook inventories due to the weak global economy, while Intel is also troubled by its Sandy Bridge processor inventory, the CPU giant plans to delay mass shipments of the new processors to minimize the impact, the sources noted.

In other words, PCs didn't sell well in 2011, Intel built up a surplus of CPUs, and so it wants to delay its release. This is all very plausible, and indeed lines up with write-offs found in Intel's earnings reports.

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