Intel Reportedly Delays Core i7-3820 CPU, Sandy Bridge-E Availability Scarce and Intel's Unreleased Core i5-2450M Spotted in Dell Notebooks

Intel Reportedly Delays Core i7-3820 CPU, Sandy Bridge-E Availability Scarce

In mid-November, Intel is expected to bring into the world its first processors based on the high-performance Sandy Bridge-E architecture, but some recent reports have come to suggest that the chip maker will face some availability issues with these CPUs.

According to VR-Zone, the latest rumors to reach the publication suggest that Intel has delayed the quad-core Core i7-3820 for the middle of Q1 next year.

As for the Core i7-3930K and 3960X, these will also be available in a very limited amount, the publication citing figures of “tens of thousands,” although it can't disclose the exact figures they were told.

The reason behind these availability issues don't have anything to do with production or anything of this sort, but are motivated by the chip maker's plans to soon release a C3 stepping of the CPUs.

Compared to the C2 version used at launch, the new version is expected to bring some slight improvements, but VR-Zone states that the version worth waiting for is actually the D stepping which won't arrive until later next year.

Intel's Unreleased Core i5-2450M Spotted in Dell Notebooks

Ever since the introduction of the processors in January of this year, Intel has constantly updated its Sandy Bridge CPU range with new models with slightly improved clock speeds and features, and this trend will continue with the upcoming Core i5-2450M.

The new processor has already emerged in the specifications of a series of Dell notebooks, the XPS 14Z, XPS 15 and XPS 17, which according to CPU World are now being marketed in Taiwan.

The new Core i5 chip is destined to take the place of the i5-2430M, and it features slightly improved specs when compared to its predecessor.

Intel has limited the changes to the core frequencies of the processor, which now comes with a base clock of 2.5GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost speed of 3.1GHz, compared to the 2.4GHz and 3GHz frequencies of the CPU is meant to replace.

In addition the the processor clocks, Intel has also increased the maximum clock speed of the integrated graphics core that now works at 1.3GHz.

The rest of the processor's specifications are similar with those of the rest of i5-2400 CPUs, which means that it includes two computing cores, 3MB of last level cache and support for the Hyper-Threading technology as well as for the AVX and AES-NI instruction sets.

The launch date of the Core i5-2450M is not yet known and neither is its recommended price, but most probably this will carry the same $225 (160 Euros) price tag as its predecessor.

The last of Intel's mobile Sandy Bridge processor refreshes came in just three weeks ago when the chip maker released the Pentium B960, Core i3-2350M and Core i5-2430M.

These made their entrance just a few weeks after Intel launched a series of high-performance mobile Core i7 products, featuring 2 and 4 CPU cores.

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