Intel Shipping Revised Cougar Point Next Week
Intel will begin to ship B3 stepping of Cougar Point chipsets on February 14.
As if to keep the splash damage to a minimum, Intel has shifted into high gear by announcing its intent to ship the B3 stepping of Cougar Point chipsets (Q67, P67, H67, and so on) to OEMs on February 14. The news arrives in a product change notification (pdf) dated on February 9, 2011 (#110456-00) and follows the company's previous promise to expedite the fix as quickly as possible.
According to the document, the changes and features are as follows:
- Revision ID will change from 04h to 05h
- BIOS Update (Revision 1.1.4 of the BIOS Specification Update and Reference Code)
- B3 stepping package is pin compatible with B2 stepping package
- Minor metal layer change from B2 to B3 improving lifetime wear out with no changes to functionality or design specifications
"Minimal re-qualification and/or validation is expected for features already supported on B2 stepping," Intel said. "B3 stepping has only a minor metal layer change that has no functional or SATA interface electrical changes. Customers should be ready to receive the new material by the “Date Customer Must be Ready to Receive Post-Conversion Material” above. Please contact your local Intel representative for further technical questions."
Originally the Cougar Point revision was slated to hit OEMs by the end of the month. However pressures from manufacturers and AMD may have driven the company to bring a solution sooner than expected. Earlier this week Leslie Sobon, AMD vice president of product and platform marketing, said that Intel's Sandy Bridge platform problem was sending additional business their way.
"We have some customers and retailers who have come to us specifically as a result of Intel's chip problem," Sobon said. "Some retailers have had to take things off their shelves, so they call us to ask what they could get from our OEMs that's similar. And OEMs are asking us for product, as well."
Also earlier this week, Intel said that it would continue to ship the defective Cougar Point chipsets for limited uses. The chipsets can only be applied in systems that won't be affected by the design flaw, namely "closed" notebook configurations and desktops with a SATA PCI-Express card pre-installed that provides additional SATA ports.
I read that and I just keep thinking that AMD doesnt make anything similar to sandybridge.
But, what happened to 1156? Did it simply dry up, because that's also a perfectly valid choice, and still performs better than AMD.
Agree. AMD doesn't have anything out right now that is on par with sandy bridge (at least just when you consider performance). I don't see how this is boosting AMD sales when socket 1156 still has a very slight edge over existing AMD platforms. Maybe this flaw in the intel processors hurt their image more than I thought. Maybe customers don't think they are as reliable. Who knows...
I would definitely wait before building a computer though. I would definitely wait for sandy bridge to get back in stores, and if you can hold off long enough, maybe even wait for bulldozer.
Or maybe AMD is bluffing. This is an excellent PR opportunity for them. I'd take their comments about increased business with a grain of salt.
When the financial statements come out for Q1 we'll see how much of an impact this issue really had on both companies.
Come on, really? This is a chip that was already produced in volume. It sounds like production was halted, the mask was fixed and hit resume. They probably reused the samples before the faulty step.
I actually posted that on Techpowerup today.
Sweet, so we could expect to find the new rev. cougar point's online on the 16th of this month?
that said, I want my chocolate cake now dammit.
I think that this website is accurate arrival time wise which is what I had posted on techpowerup. This was an email sent to me from an etailer in regards to an 1155 motherboard.
Hello Timothy,
The Asus Maximus IV Extreme motherboard I quoted you is actually $365.00 shipping included and no tax. It is scheduled to arrive 02/16/2011. Direct link: http://esolsticeinc.com/maximus-iv-extreme-motherboard-p-625.html The Intel 6 series boards are being updated daily I’ll keep you posted on any new developments. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Eliel Ortiz
Phone: 954.625.7422 | e-mail: info@esolsticeinc.com | Website: http://www.esolsticeinc.com
@ Kaori cpu
I think I bought the last GA-P67A-UD3P they had but it was at, I pmed you.
so you're saying you've fully tested and vetted this new revision?
i think i'll let other people take the blind leap and wait a year or so to see just how extensive a problem this is going to be. no SLI so why bother.