Could Intel postpone mobile variants of its new Core i7 processor? Some notebook vendors hope so, according to DigiTimes. The site quotes Taiwanese sources as saying the vendors don’t want to see Intel’s Calpella mobile platform until October, so they have more time to sell Centrino 2 notebooks.
Calpella will couple of Clarksfield processors with a range of 5-series chipsets, and Intel reportedly plans to introduce it in July or August. However, the outbreak of the financial crisis has caused Centrino 2 adoption rates to fall below Intel’s own expectations, and the chipmaker allegedly failed to compensate with more aggressive pricing. That may have left PC vendors with inflated stocks of Centrino 2 machines.
Of course, DigiTimes makes it clear that notebook makers are only hoping for a change in Intel’s roadmap. We’ll have to see whether they actively lobby the company and succeed. Intel may have responded to pressure from hardware makers not too long ago, though. In February, we heard Intel had delayed its X48 chipset until March, not long after DigiTimes said motherboard makers were pushing for the delay in order to clear inventory of X38-based mobos.
Share
