Sandy Bridge-E C2 stepping to arrive in January

Intel’s first wave of Sandy Bridge-E processor lacked support for VT-d (Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O). The i7  3960X and Core i7 3930K both shipped initially with a C1 stepping which is the first revision of the processor and the C1 revision lacked VT-d support, the issue couldn’t be fixed in time either so they shipped anyway. The C2 stepping has been reported already and is due for a January the 20th consumer launch date but engineering samples have already been delivered and are currently undergoing testing.

Only the 3960X and 3930K will be moving onto the C2 stepping for January. In addition to the fixed VT-d the new stepping will feature new S-spec and MM numbers so a BIOS update for current motherboards will likely be required.

Source: TechPowerUp