Last week it was revealed that unreleased Intel 11th Generation Rocket Lake-S CPUs had been sold through German etailer Mindfactory.de, prior even to an official announcement of the lineup's release date. Intel have now acknowledged the events to Andreas Schilling, editor of HardwareLuxx.de, confirming that sales were made prior to an embargo other parties were adhering to whilst not explicitly blaming Mindfactory for a breach.



The content of the statement is straightforward enough, although it allows both parties just enough wriggle-room to claim that there was no intentional wrongdoing. If Intel found that the embargo had been breached the consequences could be severe for Mindfactory, but it's unlikely that the actions taken (if any) will be publicly revealed.

Andreas was also able to tease out the official sales embargo date for Intel 11th Gen CPUs: March 30th. A mid-March announcement had been rumoured for some time and may still go ahead, so with any luck those lining up for the new CPUs will have plenty of time to mull their decision.



In related news WCCFTech have acquired details of the ten (yes, ten) 8-core Core i7 and i9 11th Gen CPUs that will be part of Intel's launch lineup. Although somewhat baffling first glance, the detailed specification breakdown shows clear delineations between each model in terms of specification and capability.

In the absence of reviews it's obvious that Intel's biggest challenge - apart from showing clear water between Rocket Lake S and AMD's Ryzen 5000-series - will be proving to enthusiasts that the i9-11900K is a compelling alternative to the i7-11700K. There may be up to 300MHz between their top Turbo bins but judicious overclocking of the lesser chip might make it the more attractive pick.

SOURCES: @ASchilling, WCCFTech