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Online reports surfaced this week detailing Intel’s product roadmap for the desktop enthusiast market -- including both its upcoming Z68 Express chipset and its next-generation integrated graphics platform, code-named Sandy Bridge Exteme processors.
A slide appeared on XFastest.com on Friday that appears to showa leaked Intel product roadmap for the desktop enthusiast segment, including the X79 Sandy Bridge Extreme processors based on Intel’s LGA2011 platform.
“Intel does not confirm or deny leaked NDA information,” an Intel spokesperson said in an e-mailed resonse to CRN’s request for comment regarding the purported leak.
The slides also list Intel’s forthcoming 22-nm Ivy Bridge processors as mainstream products scheduled to go to market in Q1 2012 -- on what appears to be a yearly refresh cycle following the introduction of Sandy Bridge in January.
According to the slide, Intel’s Core i7 990X Sandy Bridge processors will be the last to feature Intel’s X58 chipset. Intel’s more powerful Core i7 2600K Sandy Bridge processors, meanwhile, do not appear to be receiving a refresh in the next year – the timeframe which the roadmap covers.
Intel’s forthcoming Sandy Bridge Extreme chips appear to include added cache, enabling over-clocking room for desktop enthusiasts and other end users looking to add performance to Intel’s current high-end CPU-GPU solution. The next-generation Sandy Bridge Extreme processors will launch, according to the roadmap, on Intel’s LGA2011 platform with quad-core versions that feature 10 MB of cache and six-core versions that feature up to 15 MB of cache.
While the leaked slide appears to show the chipmaker’s long-term Sandy Bridge plans, several online reports say Intel is preparing to launch its Z68 Express Chipset in order to over-clock its current Sandy Bridge processors.
However, an Intel spokesperson contacted by CRN did not confirm the rumored release date, saying “We can’t be more specific other than to say we plan a new chipset of that sort later in the year.”
