Intel's Sandy Bridge Chips Appear In Online Retail Listings

According to a report from Engadgeton Saturday, Intel's Sandy Bridge-based Core i7-2630QM CPU is listed among the components for HP's upcoming Pavilion dv7 gaming PC. Laptoping has spotted the 2 GHz, quad-core processor in online retailer listings for the 17.3-inch Acer Aspire, Lenovo’s IdeaPad Y560P, and an unspecified PC model from Gateway.

An Intel spokesperson on Monday declined to respond to the report, saying the company does not comment on rumors and speculation. Intel also declined to say which OEMs will be offering systems with Sandy Bridge, which the company is expected to launch at CES 2011 in January.

Sandy Bridge, an integrated graphics solution with a new core offering discrete-level video performance built directly onto the processor, is based on Intel's existing 32 nanometer manufacturing process. It is expected to include Advanced Vector Extensions with controlled performance and power efficiency, as well as an overall improved visual experience.

According to Laptoping, some of the notebooks with the Sandy Bridge architecture also include either AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6550 or Mobility Radeon HD 6570, details of which have not yet been released.

AMD launched its high-end Radeon 6800 GPUs last month, followed by the Radeon HD 6500M and AMD Radeon HD 6300M on Monday. The Radeon 6000 cards offer improved performance per watt and visualization through hardware tessellation, as well as 1GB of dedicated graphics memory and DirectX 11 support.

Meanwhile, AMD began shipping its Fusion APUs to manufacturers earlier this month. Fusion offers an integrated graphics solution similar to Sandy Bridge with graphics capability built-onto the CPU die.

Last week, Intel CEO Paul Otellini confirmed an early first quarter timeframe for the launch of Intel's Sandy Bridge processor lineup. Otellini said Sandy Bridge will power a new generation of video streaming collaboration and compared it to the breakthrough of Intel's Pentium processor in the 1990s, prompting a wide-range of reactions from system builders who have partnered with the chip maker.

Intel initially unveiled the Sandy Bridge architecture at its annual Intel Developer Forum in September.

"Sandy Bridge will revolutionize PCs again," Otellini said at the time.