Planned for Q1 2012, the first Ivy Bridge wave will be made up of LGA1155 CPUs which are compatible with (quite a few) current 6 Series chipsets (a BIOS update will be required though) and the upcoming 7 Series (Panther Point) boards. Intel's 22nm chips feature 16 PCIe lanes, Turbo 2.0 support (depending on model), an integrated dual-channel DDR3 (up to DDR3-1600) memory controller, a new graphics core with DirectX 11 support, as well as an updated version of the Quick Sync technology and 'enhanced' AVX acceleration for extra performance. TDP will hover between 35W and 95W.

The 7 Series chipset will finally bring native USB 3.0 support to an Intel platform and will allow connectivity with up to three monitors. In terms of multi-GPU support don't expect any changes, still 1 x 16 or 2 x 8 configurations. Those who want more will be served (in Q4) the Sandy Bridge-E line which will support 2 x 16 and 4 x 8 PCIe setups.

The industry reports about GIGABYTE cancelling all P67 projects and moving 100% to next gen Intel 6 series chipset models are misleading and unfounded. GIGABYTE will continue producing P67 chipset motherboards until the end of 2011, and the H67 models are expected to be available well into 2012. However, it is true that GIGABYTE is aggressively preparing a full range of motherboards based on next gen Intel 6 series chipsets for the enthusiast, power user and mainstream market segments. These models will boast all the rich features available from Intel’s latest chipset and CPU offerings together with some exciting new GIGABYTE proprietary technologies.

We appreciate the excitement and enthusiasm regarding GIGABYTE’s next generation 6 series chipset motherboards, and look forward to a quick ramp in the weeks and months to come.

Before we get to the flagship Sandy Bridge-E CPUs, it’s interesting to see that Intel is still working on a current-generation replacement for their existing consumer-focused flagship Sandy Bridge CPU – the Core i7-2600K. If the Q3 launch is correct, we should be seeing such a CPU, rumoured to be the Core i7-2800K, before the end of September (a nice welcome gift for AMD’s Bulldozer launch).

Of course, that does not mean that you will be able to buy those chips in 2011. According to Otellini, first Ivy Bridge systems should become available in Spring 2012. As Ivy Bridge is introduced and ramping up, Intel expects that its profit margins will improve as well.