Intel confirms delay, sees Centrino 2 in Aug.

Intel today confirmed the existence of a significant delay for its Centrino 2 notebook platform. While not providing the originally scheduled release date, company representative Bill Kircos now says that the mainboard chipsets and their matching processors will now be ready by the week of July 14th, or between two and three weeks after a widely reported late June introduction. The spokesman also confirms the twofold nature of the delay, which centers around both a technical flaw and legal obligations.

"There were two minor issues we found during final testing – one with our integrated graphic chipsets, which we have found a workaround for but need to re-screen our parts," Kircos says, "and [a] second around our wireless [Wi-Fi] chip, which was a paperwork and certification mistake we made." The latter error is believed to hinge on a lack of FCC approval for a Wi-Fi chipset.

The representative further cautions that actual availability could be later than the July timeframe for some system builders using the technology. Some parts won't be available in volume until early August, he says. The affected components aren't mentioned but are believed to include 802.11n-capable Wi-Fi chipsets used in more advanced computers.

Such a delay could scuttle the launch schedules of several top-tier PC builders, many of whom have been waiting on Centrino 2's improved performance and features to unveil new notebook lines. A wave of new Dell Inspirons was planned to ship less than a week after an official Intel announcement at Computex on June 3rd, while Apple has been widely rumored as preparing a complete MacBook overhaul that analysts and others have suggested would appear at the Worldwide Developer Conference's June 9th keynote speech.

Apple offers nearly all its systems with 802.11n-based wireless as standard, preventing any new systems from shipping until Intel's specified August timeframe or later.

Filed under: computers, industry, Apple
Other story tags: Intel, Dell, MacBook, Centrino, Inspiron