Actually, there appears to be a more practical reason behind the delay, according to reports. Sources at Taiwan motherboard manufacturers are citing problems with the front-side bus (FSB) on certain boards that would use the Yorkfield non-Extreme processors. More specifically, mass-market four-layer boards, such as some P35-based boards, may have "noise" and stability issues, according to PC Watch which cited Taiwan motherboard vendors.
High-end, six-layer boards, such as those that use the X38 chipset, do not appear to have any FSB issues, according to the report. Consequently, high-end (six-layer) boards based on Intel's Extreme QX9650 do not have the issue, but lower-end boards using upcoming Yorkfield non-Extreme chips could potentially have issues. Apparently, Harpertown and dual-core Wolfdale boards do not have issues. Finally, what rumors and reports seem to be missing is that Intel is not necessarily intentionally delaying these processors only because it believes that AMD is not competitive. The more plausible reason is that Intel believes that it has breathing room to fix the issue because of the AMD Barcelona and Phenom delays. The Intel fix may take one to two months, according to reports.
Intel Yorkfield processors delayed because of bugs
Posted on Tuesday, December 25 2007 @ 19:45 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck