Between the Lines
Larry Dignan, Sam Diaz, Andrew NuscaIntel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
By Larry Dignan | January 31, 2011, 7:18am PST
Summary
If you just purchased a system powered by Intel’s Core i5 or i7 chipset, get ready for a return or repair. Intel has a chipset issue that affects the launch of Sandy Bridge.
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Larry Dignan
Biography
Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
Sam Diaz
Biography
Sam Diaz
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. He has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.
Andrew Nusca
Biography
Andrew Nusca
Associate Editor
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.
He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancee and his cat, Spats.
Intel said Monday that it discovered a design flaw in a chipset circuit and has “implemented a silicon fix.” The chip giant also said it will work with PC makers to handle returns and repairs.
Specifically, Intel found a design problem in a support chip, the Intel 6 Series, which is code-named Cougar Point. In a nutshell, chipsets with Serial-ATA ports could degrade over time and hurt the performance of hard drives and DVD drives.
This potentially faulty chipset was used in Intel’s latest Core processors, or Sandy Bridge.
In a statement, Intel said:
Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue.
The company said it will deliver an updated version of the chipset in late February with full volume in April. Intel added that it will work with PC makers to handle returns of the chipset and support motherboard replacements.
At least Intel caught the issue early. The faulty support chip has only been shipping since Jan. 9. Customers impacted will be those that bought second-generation Core i5 and Core i7 systems.
This recall will also lead to a financial hit relative to previous expectations. For the first quarter, Intel said the chipset problem will cut revenue by $300 million as it “discontinues production of the current version of the chipset and begins manufacturing the new version.” The total cost to repair and replace systems will be about $700 million.
Intel added that the issue, which technically occurred in the fourth quarter, will cut previously reported margins to 63.5 percent, down from a reported 67.5 percent. Intel will also take a first quarter charge that will cut margins by 2 percent. Revenue projections for 2011 aren’t changed.
Since Intel was updating its outlook, the company said it also closed the purchase of Infineon, which will be known as the Intel Mobile Communications Group. The McAfee deal will close by the end of the first quarter.
Here’s Intel’s outlook, which excludes McAfee at this point:
- For the first quarter, Intel expects revenue to be $11.7 billion, give or take $400 million. The previous outlook was $11.5 billion, give or take $400 million. Gross margins will be about 61 percent, down from the previous outlook of 64 percent.
- The company is projecting revenue growth in the “mid-to high teens” compared to its previous estimate of 10 percent. For 2011, gross margins will be 63 percent compared to the previous outlook of 65 percent.
- For 2011, R&D spending will be $8.2 billion, up from a previous outlook of $7.3 billion.
Bottom line: Intel takes a hit on the chipset design flaw, but things could have been much worse.
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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.
Disclosure
Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.
Biography
Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
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Oh well...
back to the ol' drawing board.
RE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
I avoid Intel chips like the plague...
I view it the other way
@Ron Burgundy, I've never had an AMD chip that worked great. Out of the 4 here at work (in various systems) they are the most troublesome.I gave them a chance, and maybe its the machines they're in, (not high end, but by no means low end at all) but I'm getting the feeling that I'll be avoiding AMD chips like the plague.
Though none of my systems are running these batches of chips, so not an issue for us.
RE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
@John Zern It's not always easy to know if it's the chipset or the motherboard design/chips. I've had many AMD chips/sets over the years and have always given me the most bang for the buck (not necessarily the most bang), but the motherboards have definitely made a difference.dabble5301/31/2011 08:51 AMI've Generally Had Only Motherboard Issues
@John Zern
As dabble53 alluded to, I've generally had only motherboard issues with AMD chips. I have a machine at work that I've used as a test server, and it's always been flaky. It recently quit booting at all, and I found a blown capacitor on the motherboard. Someone who used to work at the company I'm with built the machine with cheaply constructed parts, and I've been reaping the results. At home I've never had problems with an AMD CPU machine, but at home, I've selected the motherboards ("economical" rather than "cheap"; in other words I paid attention to quality as well as price).Of course, I've generally had problems only with motherboards with Intel chips as well, so this is no knock against them. Any company can end up having to issue a recall.
I tend to use AMD processors more in my own computers because they tend to have a better price/performance ratio even if they don't always have the very best performance.
CFWhitman01/31/2011 09:34 AMRE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
Do you still use floppy disks?
RE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
Just a good lesson that all man made things are flawed. It just depends on how well we tolerate the flaws.
RE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
Good that they caught it early..
RE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
At least Intel is going to replace the defective chips with help from manufacturers. I wonder which manufacturers are affected and how they will support this... who pays for shipping, etc..This is quite different from the coprocessor fiasco from a few years back. I think that I got an almost worthless voucher that time.
RE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
Looks like I'll be sticking with my trusty P45 chipset-powered motherboards for a little while longer.
RE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
Now, from auto makers to chip makers
RE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
I switched to AMD years ago and have never regretted it. In the ongoing competition Intel may be on top at times but AMD always comes back and all the Intel users can thank AMD for the prices they have paid. Were it not for AMD their wallets would be much thinner.
So how do we know if we are buying a fixed version?
I was just about to order an i7-2600 from newegg and a gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7 motherboard.
RE: Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout
I am getting ready to buy an i7 T510 from Lenovo, am i affected?
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Monday, 31 January 2011
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