Intel Resumes Shipments of Faulty Cougar Point
But only to the few that accept the flaw.
Intel recently issued a statement announcing its plans to resume shipments of the motherboards and notebooks utilizing faulty 6-series Cougar Point chipsets. However there's a catch: the chipsets can only be used 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 to provides additional SATA ports.
"Both Intel and its customers are focused on delivering the highest quality PC systems based on Intel 2nd Generation Core Processors," Intel said in the statement. "As a result of these discussions and specific requests from computer makers, Intel is resuming shipments of the Intel 6 Series Chipset for use only in PC system configurations that are not impacted by the design issue."
Intel added that "'only computer makers who have committed to shipping the Intel 6-series chipset in PC system configurations that are not impacted by the design issue will be receiving these shipments."
The news follows last week's full disclosure of the Cougar Point flaw. As stated by Intel, the 6 Series chipset (P67 and H67) has the potential to impact certain PC system configurations-- namely a problem related to the 3 Gbps SATA ports 2 to 5 (0 and 1 are unaffected) and the "Cougar Point" SATA controller. Intel said that the affected SATA ports within the chipsets may degrade over time. MSI indicated that it could well be over a period of three years.
Tuesday Intel spokesperson Dan Snyder said that OEMs will not be allowed to ship PCs with connectors interfacing the faulty Cougar Point part. This will prevent consumers from connecting hard drives or optical drives purposely or inadvertently.
Currently Intel is working on a new version of the chipset and will be received by manufacturers sometime around the end of February. Sandy Bridge motherboard shipments are expected to return to normal in April. In the meantime, Intel said that it will work with its OEM partners to accept the return of the current affected chipsets. It also plans to support modifications or replacements needed on motherboards or systems.
PC manufacturers who have already sold desktops and laptops sporting the faulty Cougar Point chipsets are currently offering replacements as soon as the revised chipsets arrive. The companies--spanning from Asus to HP-- are also offering full refunds for customers who aren't satisfied with the replacements.
It will be interesting to see if AMD sales go up a bit more because of it.
By the way, loving my i7-2600k OC'd to 4 GHz and Asus P8P67 Deluxe board, they kick some serious ass. Wouldn't even consider anything older than LGA 1155.
how many of them use more than 2?
1. 2nd HDD
2. SSD for their boot drive, or
3. 2nd Optical Drive
4. E-sata device using one of the 3g sata ports
IDE devices have pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur, it's all sata now. So to answer your question, probably atleast half, and as much as 90%.
Amazing how much market share they "cut" too when Microsoft made such a huge mistake. Mac is still at what is it the amazing 5% world wide. Clearly proves the loyalty of the Microsoft customers!
and none of those would be able to use the 6gb ports?
I understand a business is there to make money but there is a line between making money off quality products and greed.
Makes me rethink waiting for the G3 drives for my old SATA2 system. I use to trust Intel quality over Crucial/Vertex drives.
Last time AMD had a "bashing" campaign was when they launched their "Dual core Duel" campaign against Intel. Turns out just weeks after that campaign Intel released Conroe and bitch slapped AMDs ass into the stone age, and they've never recovered the top market position since for CPUs. I think they learnt their lesson that R&D is far more valuable to a company's forward development than fanfare.
One a side note: If you think this is going to dent Intel enough to allow AMD to gain some ground, you are most likely mistaken. It will take a lot more than a circumstantially faulty chipset to clear the Moses path for AMD. And honestly, why is it that every time there is news about Intel there are always the generic "good news for AMD... maybe?" comments? Not every news story about Intel needs to have a direct effect on AMD you know.
Every SB board I have seen reviewed has at least 2 6Gb/s ports. So your whole post was a waste of time. How many users need more than 4 ports? A very small number. And those that do, likely have the technical know how to understand how to get around the problem.
It will be interesting to see if AMD sales go up a bit more because of it.
This means that it will probably only ship to OEMs and high end gaming rig builders (who tend to use PCIe cards for better performance).
I doubt we will see any P67/H67 mobos on Newegg yet, or at least until the mobo makers have the fixed chip.
As for AMD, I doubt they will be able to move in. First they have to beat the current generaition of Core i CPUs to do that.
You have to say boo to Intel for immediately stopping shipment of a possibly defective product which may only affect a minor % of users after a few years?
This is probably one of the more responsible moves than:
- What nvidia did with the overheating issue for the mobile graphics.
- What Apple did for the iphone antenna
They decided to pull out the product before it even gains widespread use.