Intel Delays Mass Shipment of its Ivy Bridge CPUs

Intel has now notified its partners about its plan to delay the mass shipments of its Ivy Bridge CPUs. The move is not because of manufacturing problems or low yields of the new CPUs but rather, to help the company’s partners exhaust their remaining Sandy Bridge CPU inventories which until now are seeing slow movement because of the overall low demand due to the weak global economy.

The company still plans to go ahead with the April launch though and continue with small shipments of the CPUs but it is only after June this year that mass shipments of Ivy Bridge CPUs will start.

Notebook vendors have all started polishing their design for Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs but many are only expecting the market to transition to the PC replacement season when Windows 8 finally comes out later this year. With that being said, the notebook industry will then have to do with the slow first three quarters of this year.

On the other hand, the news is not that bad for all as third party USB 3.0 chip makers are expected to profit more with the delay. Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs integrate with them USB 3.0 controllers and without them around, PC manufacturers will still have to rely on third party controllers made by Renesas, ASMedia and Etron.

Shares of these USB 3.0 chip makers were originally expected to drop by 20% this year but because of the delay of Ivy Bridge CPUs, the companies’ shares are now expected to climb back to 50%.

Source: Digitimes