Intel to Retire its LGA1366 and LGA1156 Processors in 2012

Since Ivy Bridge is still a few months away from release, Intel has decided to keep itself busy by sealing the fate of a bunch of older processors including the Core i7-930, i7-950, i7-960, i7-980 and i7-990X which are part of the LGA1366 platform, and the LGA1156-compatible Pentium G6950, G6960 and Core i3-540, i5-650, i5-660, i5-670, i5-680, i7-860 and i7-870.

These 45nm and 32nm CPUs are set to be available for further orders until June 29, 2012, and will continue to ship either until supplies are depleted (for the boxed versions) or until December 7th, 2012 (for the tray SKUs). As always, it's onwards and upwards.

Intel Ivy Bridge Desktop Processor Models Tabled

Russian website Overclockers.ru claims to have a complete picture of what Intel's upcoming 22 nm Core "Ivy Bridge" desktop (2012 Core Processor Family) looks like. The site compiled model names, extensions, clock speeds, Turbo Boost speeds, L3 cache sizes, and TDP ratings of as many as 18 models, most of which are quad-core.

Intel Announces Sandy Bridge Extreme Processor

Intel has unleashed a new high-end chip, known as the Sandy Bridge Extreme Edition i7-3960X, a 3.3GHz silicon powerhouse that can process 12 threads simultaneously and comes with 15MB cache.

Two other chips, the i7-3930K and the i7-3820, come with clock speeds of 3.2GHz and 3.6GHz respectively, with six cores and 12MB and four cores and 10MB. At $990, it is the most expensive desktop processor from Intel and will push the old i7-990x down the pecking order; it is also one of the hotter CPUs with a TDP of 130W when running at default speeds.

Sandy Bridge-E VT-d Broken In C1 Stepping, Fixed In C2 Stepping,Shortly After Launch

PC enthusiast customers and companies running corporate datacentres looking to buy into the new Sandy Bridge-E platform may want to wait a little while before handing over their hard-earned money to Intel. The initial batch of C1 revision Sandy Bridge-E processors have a bug – “errata” in Intel terminology – in them with VT-d, which means that hardware accelerated virtualization doesn’t work properly with them (software only mode is unaffected). The feature when working properly, allows all hardware acceleration to work on the hosted operating system (virtual machine). This would allow things such as hard drive controllers to work, plus applications such as high-powered 3D games, typically First Person Shooters, to run at nearly full speed and the full Windows Aero desktop to be displayed on the hosted OS, as the hardware features of the graphics card can be used. Therefore, working VT-d is a critical feature for these kinds of applications.

Leaked Roadmap Reveals Two Lines of Enthusiast Sandy Bridge-E Processors

In Q4 2011, Intel will unveil its new Sandy Bridge-E (enthusiast) platform, consisting of new multi-core processors in the 2011-pin LGA package, and Intel X79 Express chipset. A roadmap slide leaked to the Chinese media reveals an interesting way in which Intel will approach the platform to monetize it best. To begin with, it appears like Sandy Bridge-E will keep up with the trend set by LGA1155 processors where only certain models can be overclocked, while others are greatly limited. Among those that can be overclocked (or "unlocked", as Intel puts it,) there will be two classes.