Intel Corp. has confirmed delay of its highly-anticipated code-named Ivy Bridge microprocessors by up to eight to ten weeks than originally anticipated due to issues with the company's next-generation manufacturing process technology. It is unclear whether setbacks with 22nm manufacturing tech will cause delays for other products.

Sean Maloney, the head of Intel's business unit in China, said in an interview with Financial Times news-paper that the Core i-series "Ivy Bridge" central processing units would go on sale eight to ten weeks later than initially planned. The high-ranking executive from Intel did not elaborate, but said that schedule adjustments were made "because of the new manufacturing process".

X-bit labs reported on Monday that Intel would start to sell the first high-end Core i7 "Ivy Bridge" products on April 29, 2012. Mass availability of dual-core Core i5/i7 as well as desktop quad-core Core i5 central processing units will start from June 3, 2012. The remaining 22nm chips, such as mobile dual-core as well as desktop Core i3, will be launched in summer and fall, respectively.

It remains to be seen whether delayed roll-out of Ivy Bridge microprocessors for desktops and laptops will also mean postponements in shipments of other products made using 22nm tri-gate process technology. Intel has a number of promising 22nm products in the pipeline, including next-generation Xeon processors for servers and workstations as well as HPC compute accelerators code-named Knights Corner.

Since Core i-series "Ivy Bridge" chips were supposed to bring massive performance and feature improvements to mainstream systems, it is likely that their delay will affect performance of PC makers and other companies participating in the industry.

Tags: Intel, 22nm, Ivy Bridge, Core, Sandy Bridge