Intel looks to second quarter for Ivy Bridge server chips
updated 12:35 am EST, Thu March 8, 2012
Carlow, Poulson, Romley all planned to launch
Intel will expand its push in server platform, chipsets and processors into the second quarter of the year, DigiTimes reports. The chip company recently unveiled the E5-2600 series processors, which some believe will end up in refreshed Mac Pros in the near future, as well as three Xeon E5-1600 processors. It's set to debut a new server platform called Carlow that combines the USB 3-supporting Panther Point (C216) chipset with Ivy Bridge processors.
In the spring, Intel plans to debut its next-generation Itanium processors, code-named Poulson, that will be used on another server platform called Romley. The Xeon E5-2400 series processors will be combined with C600 chipsets will make up Romley. Altogether, the company plans for nine Poulson processors, including eight-core, six-core and quad-core models, which will be priced between $192 for the quad-core and up to $1,440 for the eight-core units in batches of 1,000.
The Carlow platform is aimed at workstations and will use the Xeon E3-1200v2 (Ivy Bridge) series, with a total of 11 processors available from dual-core up to quad-core, priced between $189 and $884 in 1,000 lots. The company has listed a number of manufacturers as customers but, as would be expected, does not mention Apple among its buyers to protect the company's plans. [via DigiTimes]
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2012
So which is it?
If Ivy Bridge server chipsets have a release date so close to Sandy Bridge ones (already released) does that mean we can dream of Apple being smart enough to delay just a tiny bit more the Mac Pro in order to avoid a double refresh that would certainly be bad for the SB buyers?