Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) CEO Paul Otellini has confirmed mid-week that its Sandy Bridge processor lineup will be launched in Q1 of 2011. Intel clearly has high hopes for its new processor, comparing the performance improvement of Sandy Bridge to that of the Pentium when it replaced the 80486 processor of yesteryear. The chip giant has confirmed that it will be showing off the new processor at CES 2011 in January.

Sandy Bridge has attracted some attention due to its greatly enhanced graphics processing capabilities, with an integrated GPU that purportedly offers performance equivalent to that of lower-end discrete graphics cards. In addition, it was created with laptops in mind first, a paradigm shift in design that should result in a more power-efficient chip.

In a question and answer session, Otellini touted how Sandy Bridge will be a revolution in terms of its video prowess. "And I think that things that would take you minutes to do on our latest chip that we are shipping today will be seconds on Sandy Bridge in terms of video compression."  For now, Intel says it has already seeded the channel with Sandy Bridge components and boards, though they will be under embargo under the official launch of the processor.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CRN
- check out this article at PC Magazine
- check out this article at Tom's Hardware

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