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Intel's partners can resume shipping Sandy Bridge laptops... if they agree to a workaround
Fret not, to-be Sandy Bridge buyer -- it looks as if the laptop delays won't be as severe as expected. According to Intel, it's working hard (read: coercing) with OEMs to keep Sandy Bridge laptops flowing from the factory, and apparently, that involves a pinky swear that partners won't utilize the four affected ports. That means that existing machines can be shipped with the first two SATA ports on the mainboard enabled, and considering that most lappies have just a single HDD, one optical drive and no eSATA sockets, the vast majority of 'em should be able to ship sans issue. An Intel spokesperson wouldn't confirm to Laptop the exact vendors who were agreeing to the terms, but at least Chipzilla is now aiming to have newly designed (and unmarred) parts in the channel by "mid-February."
