A group of unknown Taiwan-based notebook manufacturers, hereinafter referred to as "those bastards," are urging Intel to delay the release of its upcoming Calpella notebook platform in order to allow them to use up stock of existing laptop parts, Digitimes reports.

Intel's already-delayed Calpella platform promises support for the upcoming laptop Nehalem variants, Clarksfield and Auburndale, and an interesting new design. Nehalem's onboard memory controller will allow Intel to fold the Northbridge and Southbridge into one chip, dubbed Ibex Peak-M, which, although it sounds like it's related to Ubuntu, may yet be pretty sweet. Also included are Centrino 2-branded WiFi and WiMax chips. The package, presumably still branded "Centrino 2," was expected to launch this summer.

If those bastards have their way, however, Calpella may be delayed. Citing lagging laptop sales due to a flagging economy and cannibalization by netbooks, those bastards say stocks of Intel's Montevina notebook parts are at a high level. Exacerbating the problem are Intel's relatively high prices on Montevina parts, part of their own effort to combat the netbook trend's corrosive effect on margins industry-wide. Those bastards, Digitimes report, would like a few extra months to ship their remaining Montevina inventory, and have urged Intel to push the Calpella, Clarksfield, and Auburndale launches back to October, in the fourth quarter of 2009.

It's not clear why they're doing this. Aside from the general oddity of laptop vendors pushing for slower development of laptops, it seems utterly implausible that those bastards would have more than eight months' worth of chips in stock and on uncancellable orders. More likely, it would seem, those bastards simply want more months to coast on existing parts without unveiling new designs.

Intel may be surprisingly responsive to such pressure. Faced with a dire need to keep ASPs up in a crushing semiconductor crisis, and generally unpressured by competition from AMD in the notebook and netbook spaces, Intel may delay the launch, or simply keep Calpella pipelines dry until October in an intentional paper launch. As recent history has shown, large companies will bow to accommodate each other, as when MS caved to Intel by changing Vista standards to allow 915 chipset inventory to clear out. If this kind of intentional delay pans out, and proves to be typical of product spaces where Intel faces no competition, AMD's relatively uncompetitive position could be bad tidings indeed. Those bastards won't be the only ones listening keenly for news of a Calpella delay.