Unnamed sources in the upstream supply chain have informed DigiTimes that Intel is on course to deliver eight-core desktop processors, called the Haswell-E series, in the third quarter of 2014.

According to the sources, the Haswell-E processors will be sold at a hefty pricetag of around $1000, and will succeed the existing Ivy Bridge-E series. The company will also release the X99, the company's next-generation high-end chipsets, to pair with the new processors.

The Haswell-E series will reportedly be based on 22nm processing technology and offer two lines of CPUs: the X series and the K series. Both lines will support Intel's Hyper-Threading technology, Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, the third generation of PCI-Express, and DDR4 memory up to 2133 MHz.

The X99 chipsets will reportedly feature support for 10 SATA 3 (6 Gb/s) ports, and native support for USB 3.0, sources claim.

DigiTimes' unnamed sources point out that the Haswell-E processors will only account for a very small portion of Intel's CPU shipment in 2014. Combined with the Ivy Bridge-E processors, both will be less than 5 percent of Intel's shipments by the end of 2014.

In addition to the Haswell-E processors, Intel will reportedly ship the Haswell Refresh platform in the second quarter. Shipments for these CPUs will begin in May 2014, and the platform will be revealed at Computex 2014 in June.

Also on the roadmap are the next-generation Z97 and H97 chipsets, which are expected to be released in March and April of 2014 so that motherboard vendors can start offering their 9-Series solutions in April.