Previously targeted for an April 29 announcement, Ivy bridge is now set for an April 23 introduction with Acer, HP and Lenovo expected to launch notebooks based on the new 22 nm processors.

Retailers across Europe apparently have posted Ivy Bridge CPUs ahead of their official availability as well. According to Heise.de, the models Core i7-3770K, Core i7-3770, Core i5-3570K, Core i5-3550 and Core i5-3450 have surfaced on price comparison sites for prices between 189 and 340 Euros. The website noted that Ivy Bridge processors are substantially more expensive than Sandy Bridge versions with the same clock speed. Those who can wait should probably hold off until there is a balance of supply and demand in the market.

Opinion: If you were picky, you could note that despite Intel's CPU manufacturing process leadership, the introduction of new manufacturing processes is slipping. Back in 2005, when the company heavily marketed its tick-tock cadence of new manufacturing processes being introduced at the end of uneven years and platform refreshes in even years, we notice that Intel is now more than a quarter behind that original promise. Given the fact that the company is ahead of its competition anyway, that may not matter. But we do hear that there are significantly more roadblocks in maturing new manufacturing processes and there may be reason enough for Intel to updates its old cadence guideline.