Intel's Sandy Bridge E-Series in Q4 2011?

Intel is reportedly launching the Core i7 9-series Extreme Edition sometime this summer before unleashing the Sandy Bridge E-Series for enthusiasts later this year.

A recent report indicates that Intel's upcoming enthusiast-class Sandy Bridge E-Series processors have been delayed by at least a whole quarter, now slated for a Q4 2011 release.

Previously it was believed that the E-Series would arrive earlier in the year, appearing sometime during Q3 2011. However now there's indication that Intel plans to increase the speed of the current Sandy Bridge platform with faster chips first over the summer before rolling out the elite version for performance machines in the Fall/Winter window.

News of the delay stems from a document acquired by X-bit Labs. According to the paper, the processors will use the LGA2011 socket and offer "extra large cache" to maximize the overall speed of single-threaded and dual-threaded applications, the quad-channel memory controller, and "a number of other enhancements."

The documents also reveals that E-Series processors bearing four or six cores will be paired with the Intel X68 "Patsburg" core-logic set. However platforms based on the 6-core processors will offer external base frequency generators but will keep the clock-speeds of USB, SATA and other buses locked. This will allow users to boost the clock speed of the CPU by increasing the Direct Media Interface (DMI) frequencies.

Before launching the E-Series, Intel will reportedly unleash the Core i7 9-series Extreme Edition processors sometime in Q2 or Q3 2011. Currently Intel has not issued a statement in regards to the leaked document or the release dates contained within this article. X-bit labs also did not provide a scanned version of the document, so until the processor giant steps forth with an official statement, everything is still considered rumor.