LGA2011 Sandy Bridge-EP Xeon Processor on Ebay

[btarunr]

Intel may be a little over 6 months away from unveiling its new Sandy Bridge-EP platform, but it's understandable that the company is circulating engineering samples among closely tied industry partners. One such sample fell into the right (wrong, for Intel) hands, and is being pawned away on ebay for a handsome price. The current bid stands at US $1,359.99.

The chip itself is Q19D ES, an 8-core Sandy Bridge-EP in the LGA2011 package. The chip is said to have 8 cores, and 16 threads with HyperThreading enabled. It is being sold as Core i7, though some sources say the chip could be from Xeon E5-4600 or E5-2600 series (4600 is four-socket capable, 2600 is dual-socket capable). The chip is clocked at 1.60 GHz, and holds 20 MB shared cache according to the seller, though even the highest-end LGA2011 Core i7 is said to hold no more than 15 MB L3 (shared) cache. L3 is the only shared cache.



The chip is compatible with Patsburg C600 or Patsburg-HEDT X79, for enterprise and client platforms respectively, but with a scarcity of LGA2011 motherboard samples till Computex, only time will tell if this non-refundable chip being sold becomes someone's new supercool toy or epicfail paperweight. The item can be found here.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[DanishDevil]

8 cores and 16 threads with HyperThreading enabled.

Quite an interesting chip. It's weird to see that the socket is going to be rectangular rather than square.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

$1360 sounded reasonable until I saw the clockspeed. 1.60 GHz is very slow for Sandy Bridge. It's probably the cheapest/lowest clocked 8-core Intel will offer on LGA 2011. But yeah, not very useful without a motherboard.

 

[mtosev]

I would love to have that. and a LGA2011 mobo so I can brag to others lol

 

[Scheich]

Dont buy amd, cause this puppy is right around the corner
I wonder how much it will be..

 

[Yukikaze]

This should be a very early engineering sample similar to this one if this post in the wPrime thread here is to be believed. Whoever is buying it is wasting a ton of money for nothing.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2160596&postcount=3528

Pic link:

 

[15th Warlock]

...only time will tell if this non-refundable chip being sold becomes someone's new supercool toy or epicfail paperweight...

8 cores! 20MBs cache! And no board to test and see if it works? I vote for epicfail paperweight

 

[mumak]

This is a very early sample (ES1 / A1).
I don't think that guy will make money, Intel will go after him.

 

[Yukikaze]

This is a very early sample (ES1 / A1).
I don't think that guy will make money, Intel will go after him.

With the pic of the chip revealed, it won't be hard for Intel to track where it is missing. Once they do that, someone is going to suffer, badly. Doubly so if he is an employee.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

I'd be surprised if something actually happened to the seller. For years there's been sales of ES samples before the product launch. I'd imagine they have a pretty good system, that is if intel even bothers to try and combat these things.

 

[Yukikaze]

I'd be surprised if something actually happened to the seller. For years there's been sales of ES samples before the product launch. I'd imagine they have a pretty good system, that is if intel even bothers to try and combat these things.

They usually do nothing to the seller, but people who give away or sell ES chips without authorization are hammered. There have been a few over the years.

 

[mumak]

The guy who got the ES (under NDA+IPLA) will be in trouble. The seller is probably a different person that hasn't signed anything with Intel.

 

[mtosev]

They usually do nothing to the seller, but people who give away or sell ES chips without authorization are hammered. There have been a few over the years.

And what happens to them? They sue them?

 

[Yukikaze]

And what happens to them? They sue them?

If they are an affiliate company (such as motherboard designers/manufacturers) they can get sued, or "punished" in other ways (loss of business being one) because this is usually a breach of contract. If it is an Intel employee, then it is both a breach of contract and also theft (which is a criminal offense).

 

[mtosev]

Do ppl who get ES chips have to return them back to Intel? i have seen ppl get ES months before the release and are posting benches.

 

[Yukikaze]

Do ppl who get ES chips have to return them back to Intel? i have seen ppl have ES months before the release and are posting benches.

I have no idea, but even if they do not, I doubt the conditions allow them to sell pre-released chips to third parties.

 

[mumak]

Yes, it's common that ES are available several months before actual release - it's to help development and board bring-up in advance. Depends on ES-stage, many such samples are missing certain features or containing errata that are enabled/tuned/fixed at a later stage.
Intel ES chips are declared as a sole property of Intel and are subject to recall and/or audit, and must ultimately be returned. Of course it's not allowed to sell these chips or show to unauthorized parties. *.* is covered by NDA + IPLA

 

[Ikaruga]

You can't just sell stolen goods. I'm not a law professional, but I think it's against the law in most of the countries.

It's probably a crappy early sample anyway

 

[Yukikaze]

You can't just sell stolen goods. I'm not a law professional, but I think it's against the law in most of the countries.

It's probably a crappy early sample anyway

It is, but judging from the huge amount of ES parts on ebay, it doesn't seem that Intel is actively pursuing those who sell them. Those who leak them is a whole different matter.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

This is not the first one he has sold either, other went for $1600 us

Intel i7 6 core★ES Q19J Sandy Bridge★2011★No 990x 2600k (Nr.220769867163)

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220769867163

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I thought that Intel was going to ship 22NM Ivy Bridge based Xeons at the very beginning
of 2012??

So does this mean that both 22NM Ivy Bridge based Xeons and 32NM Sandy Bridge based Xeons are being released at almost the same time??

 

[Imsochobo]

I thought that Intel was going to ship 22NM Ivy Bridge based Xeons at the very beginning
of 2012??

So does this mean that both 22NM Ivy Bridge based Xeons and 32NM Sandy Bridge based Xeons are being released at almost the same time??

intel is going to have a hard time with cpu 22nm. ( meaning it'll probably take a while before it really shines)
nand 22nm on the other hand I guess they'll rock ;P

amd,glofo and ibm is doing pretty well with 22nm and beyond after what i hear.
amd's news I read recently, and diffrent sources from glofo ibm and amd is looking brightly at the future beyond 22nm.
Intel news is a while since I read about, so things might have changed.

 

[Undead46]

I thought that Intel was going to ship 22NM Ivy Bridge based Xeons at the very beginning
of 2012??

So does this mean that both 22NM Ivy Bridge based Xeons and 32NM Sandy Bridge based Xeons are being released at almost the same time??

From what I heard, 2011 is Q4 of 2011 and Ivy is Q1 of 2012.

Unless there has been newer updates to their release date?

 

[TheMailMan78]

I wonder who will win the bid? "AMDR&D" has won the bid!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

From what I heard, 2011 is Q4 of 2011 and Ivy is Q1 of 2012.

Unless there has been newer updates to their release date?

So basically the consumer CPUs and higher end server CPUs are going to have faster cores,lower power consumption and perhaps more cores too(at least for the server versions).

Edit!!

The following is an Intel roadmap which was recently leaked.

It looks like Ivy Bridge is to be released in 1H 2012. This would mean it could be up to a year away.