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The Sandy Bridge wafer.(Credit:Nick Knupffer/Intel)
The flaw Intel disclosed today in its Sandy Bridge chipset was caught early in the rollout of the company's new processor, so there aren't, relatively speaking, large numbers of systems in customers' hands. What follows are important points that consumers should be aware of.
It bears repeating that this is a chipset issue, not a Sandy Bridge processor issue. The chipset--or companion chip to the Sandy Bridge processor--is codenamed "Cougar Point." That's where the flaw resides. Chipsets, generally speaking, are conduits that allow the main processor to communicate with hardware in a PC.
And the flaw, in this case, is related to how the Cougar Point chipset communicates with SATA devices, such as a SATA hard disk drive or SATA optical drive.
Note that Intel refers to Sandy Bridge officially as "Second Generation Intel Core Processor."
Intel: main points of Sandy Bridge chipset flaw:
- Chipset: The issue is in Sandy Bridge's Cougar Point chipset, not the main Sandy Bridge processor. Most Sandy Bridge systems sold to date are quad-core laptops. Potentially affected systems have been shipping only since January 9.
- Issue: Affects SATA ports 2 through 5, not ports 0 and 1. Most laptops have two SATA devices, such as a hard disk drive and optical drive that would be using the unaffected ports 0 and 1. That said, Sandy Bridge-based systems with more than a couple of SATA devices could potentially be affected.
- How issue was discovered: Last week customers started telling Intel that there was an issue. As Intel stressed the part, then Intel's labs started seeing a failure to access ports 2 through 5. The Intel stress test simulated time passing and it showed that over time this issue could come up.
- How many Sandy Bridge chipsets shipped to date: 8 million. But Intel claims relatively few are in customers' hands. Most of those are in the sales channel and will be pulled out of the channel. Intel is supporting PC makers in this effort.
- Issue fixed in new silicon: Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the chipset which will resolve the issue.
- Delay of new Sandy Bridge chips: Intel expects to begin delivering the updated version of the chipset to customers in late February and expects full volume recovery in April.
- Affects consumer not corporate (enterprise): It was caught during the testing of consumer-oriented products, so when Intel finally launches Sandy Bridge processors that are targeted at enterprise--typically with vPro capability--those systems won't have the issue.
- If a consumer has an early Sandy Bridge laptop: If a customer has a system with the potentially-flawed chipset, then the only real alternative is to replace the entire motherboard where the chipset has been soldered down.
- Most laptops shipping today still use the previous generation of Intel processors: Because the Sandy Bridge products that use the Cougar Point chipset are just ramping now, the high-volume products continue to be last year's Core i series processors (codenamed "Westmere"). These products are not affected.
Current Intel Sandy Bridge chipsets. (Credit:Intel)
List of Intel Sandy Bridge laptop processors. To date, laptops based on Intel Sandy Bridge Core i7 quad-core processors-- listed with Q suffix--are the only systems potentially affected, according to Intel.(Credit:Intel)
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