Intel's "broken" Ivy Bridge SKU's last to arrive

[siopao1984]

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If you're a regular readers of publications like VR-Zone, you're most likely aware of the fact that Intel and AMD alike don't throw away "broken" CPU's, as it's simply too expensive. Instead these CPU's are repurposed as lower-end offerings and it looks like this is part of the reason for the delay of some Ivy Bridge models.Intel has no less than seven different configurations for its Ivy Bridge processors, of which what is known as the 4+2 and 4+1 models, will be part of the initial launch. A 4+2 is a quad core CPU with a GT2 graphics core and a 4+1 is as such a quad core CPU with a GT1 graphics core. However, to create a 4+1 model, Intel has two different options, it can either make a specific chip or it can "harvest" a slightly failed 4+2 part and turn it into a 4+1 part. In this case Intel has the option to use models with both damaged GPU cores and damages cache, as the 4+1 models in general has less cache than the 4+2 models. As an example, something like a failed Core i7-3770 could be turned into a Core i5-3570 by disabling half of the GPU execution units and 0.5MB of cache per CPU core.Things get a little bit more complex when we're moving on to the dual core models, as here we have 2+2 and 2+1 models, but these can either be made as intended, or once again "harvested". In the case of the 2+2 model it could only come from a 4+2 model, but the 2+1 models can be from a 4+2, 4+1 or a 2+2 depending on demand. Intel's internal marker for the "harvested" models appears to be a capital F, as in 4+1F or 2+1F.As such, many of the lesser models, especially for the desktop parts have now been pushed back as far as early Q4, although this is a worst case scenario and the chips are more likely to launch in late Q3. We'd expect Intel to launch several new models in August or September, or in what Intel calls Cycle 3. This will include the low-end Core i5 and the Core i3 models on the desktop side as well as the so far unannounced Core i3 mobile SKU's, not including the Ultrabook CPUs. It also looks like we can expect the mobile Ivy Bridge based Pentiums and Celerons to arrive sometime in late Q3 or early Q4, although we have as yet to confirm which models we can expect to see here.

Read more: Intel's "broken" Ivy Bridge SKU's last to arrive by VR-Zone.com

[Notepad]

Makes you wonder i3-2120 are just bad i7-2600, it's why it came so late.

[lloyd_joy]

naa pay i3-2130... hehehe... mao gyud ni'y strategy sa mga chip/IC manufacturer para dili masayang ang build. mahal kaayo ang per piece ani kun i-scrap lang... the higher the yield (dala ang pag downgrade or re-grade), the better para less ang cost of scrap...

[bim27142]

yup, it completely makes sense... why totally scrap a half-working cpu when you can still sell it at a lower binned chip...

[chang87]

well, thats business. heheh. why trash it when you can make something out of it.