Sandy Bridge on Jan 9th, 2011

Intel to start selling Sandy Bridge on January 9th - www.nordichardware.com

Though I'm not sure I like how they worded this:

Intel is set to launch a massive fleat (hah! typo) of Sandy Bridge processors in January 2011 and together with new chipsets supporting SATA 6.0 Gbps and USB 3.0 through an added controller.

Wonder if this means SATA/600 and USB 3.0 will still NOT be native...

 

Will the M17x come "on time" with the new chips or will we have to wait months? That is the question

 

It just means Intel will start selling the chips. As in fulfilling their OEM orders. It will still be atleast a couple of months after that I imagine before notebooks with sandy bridge start coming to market.

 

You misunderstand. The chips are already there and some are probably being shipped to OEMs right now. January 9th is when Sandy Bridge hits retail.

 

Any update/info regarding its pricing as compared to current i5/i7 processors ?

 

So this could mean that if we are lucky enough, laptops with SB will be available in the end of January?

 

We'll see. But I'm skeptical. Arrandale was so slow to come to market, believe it or not it was delayed quite a while because the manufacturers whined to Intel about not being able to get rid of current stock. So Intel delayed it.
I hope it's not the same way this time around.

 

I am positive that I read that Intel does not want to repeat what happened with Arrandale - they will be fully prepared with SB - they made a point to be prepared this time.

 

Well it's not about being prepared. It's that the computer manufacturers complained to Intel because they couldn't get rid of all of their core 2 duo stock, and they were unhappy that Intel was about to release another update. So Intel decided to postpone releasing arrandale because of it.
I found an article about that and posted it here a long time ago. I don't know if I could find it again.

 

manufacturers more than likely already have SB chips and are designing laptops around them.

new laptops will likely launch alongside SB at CES.

 

What's the likelihood we see price drops in current i-core notebooks to move that stock & make room for SB? Maybe I'll hold off on my 13" laptop purchase...don't want to wait until January though....

 

Whatever price drops you'll see now, will be nothing like the price drops of when current tech goes on sale when the future tech is available in Jan 2011.

 

Does this launch include the Low power Sandy Bridge variants? I am doubtful... I just hope ATI can get the 6000 series GPUs into vendors hands by that time.

 

LV and ULV variants tend to come out 6-9 months after initial launch.

 

That statement actually confirms that SATA 6.0 Gbps and USB 3.0 will be part of the chipset. I don't know what there is to be confused about. You think they would say that the chipset supports that, but then not have it? You are reading into "added controller" waaaayyyy too far.

 

That's good, I was hoping that I was just tired and misinterpreted their wording. But does it mean there will be a second controller added to the chipset above their southbridge (or northbridge or whatever they call it now that's left on the chipset - right now I've definitely been up too long lol).

 

I have a very nooob question. what exactly is Sandy Bridge? I am unable to make sense out of it

 

they're adding another chip to mobos for usb3 integration

 

I really think USB 3.0 is long overdue.

 

Sandy Bridge is the name of a whole new family of CPUs targetted at desktop computers, servers and notebook. It features quite important changes compared to intel's current offer architecture-wise ; the main feature according to intel is an integrated GPU powerful enough for most daily uses, which supports 1080p video display and even allow a little light gaming so the lower-end discrete GPUs should come near obsolete.

It's default clock is higher than current CPUs and at the same frequency it should give a boost in performance ranging from little to huge depending on the task performed. It's also supposed to seriously improve battery life for notebooks.

 

hey Botsuy, thanks for the reply.... very comprehensive

 

I highly doubt they would move to a two chip solution. The current chipsets are made at 65nm. It doesn't sound like it would cost a lot to include them to begin with, and they will likely be moving the chipset to 45nm since 45nm processor output should have already decreased or will be decreasing by a lot.