Intel finds flaw in Sandy Bridge chipsets, halts shipments

[GomJabbar]

This news is a little dated, but I didn't notice it posted here previously. Likely this has caused a delay in the shipments of the ThinkPad X220 (and perhaps other models).

Because this is a chip design-level problem, it will require the replacement of the Cougar Point chips embedded in the motherboards of affected systems. Intel expects to be producing an updated, fixed version of Cougar Point silicon in late February, with "full volume recovery" coming later, in April or possibly even late March.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/20326

Lenovo is establishing a special service program that will assist customers who purchased PCs affected by the Intel series 6 chipset announcement. This special service program provides a proactive, free of charge replacement system board through normal service channels as defined by the system's warranty terms and conditions. These parts will become available by April 8, 2011. At that time customers may contact service by referring to the support number for their home country. If any customer is not satisfied with this offer, please give us a call so that we may better understand your concerns.
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Possible Lenovo models affected may include those listed below:
• IdeaPad laptop B570, G470, G570, V470, Y460P, Y560P
• IdeaCentre desktop K330

Of these, we have shipped a limited number of units with the affected Intel chip worldwide. As of February 1, 2011, Lenovo has stopped shipping all products with the affected chipset.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 76673.html

[penartur]

By the way, all this fuss is because of the problem that 5% of users will experience over three years a degradation of performance of SATA ports 3 through 6; so if the system is only using SATA ports 1 and 2 (as most laptops do), it will be unaffected by the problem.
Someone made a mountain out of a molehill.