Publicly, Intel had planned to start shipping Ivy Bridge in late 2011, although its usual practices would still have meant a more likely early 2012 release in actual computers. Current timing might mean Ivy Bridge shipping only at the start of next year to meet the new goal.

Notebook processors don’t yet have a corresponding roadmap and are eitehr likely to follow in lock-step with the desktops or else sit on another schedule.

The launch could leave most computer builders leaning on the existing, 32nm Sandy Bridge architecture for longer than usual. Intel may have been aware of this for awhile as it has been planning an interim upgrade, Sandy Bridge E, with more cores and larger cache sizes. System builders like Apple, Dell, and HP, who are often dependent on Intel’s release schedule to dictate their own strategies, may have to wait later than this year.

Beyond the shrink to the smaller, more efficient 22nm process and the resulting boosts to clock speeds, Ivy Bridge adds official USB 3.0, PCI Express 3.0, and a new graphics chipset capable of supporting both DirectX 11 (OpenGL 4) and OpenCL 1.1.

Original roadmap at top; new version at bottom

Codenamed Desna, the new APUs will be part of AMD’s Fusion Z-series, but at this point technical details are rather sketchy. AMD touts the new series as capable of “powering the ultimate HD tablet” and offering “true APU technology,” which is about as vague as it gets.

However, it is clear that we are looking at proper Fusion parts tweaked for tablets. Bear in mind that AMD’s C-50 APU has already found its way into Acer’s Iconia W500 tablet and it is safe to assume that new Z-series parts will offer slightly superior power efficiency than current C-series APUs. The C-50 variant used in the Iconia reportedly consumes up to 5 watts. However, Z-series specs remains unclear at this point, although it seems likely these APUs will be based on the same Bobcat core as Ontario and Zacate chips.

Of course, Z-series APUs will offer full DirectX 11 compatibility and AMD doesn’t fail to mention that they will be more than capable of smoothly streaming full HD video. In addition, AMD promises acceleration in IE9, HTML5, MS Office 10 and Adobe Flash 10.2. External monitors will also be supported and AMD notes that the Z-series should allow “immersive gaming.”

This promises to be a rather eventful summer for AMD and we will try to find out more about the Z-series over the coming days, so stay tuned.