ServerWorks, a Broadcom’s subsidiary, announced a couple of days ago it will delay shipments of certain Grand Champion-series chipsets for high-end servers because of yield issues. ServerWorks is a major supplier of core-logic products for Intel-based servers, therefore, the problem may impact Intel and its partners, who build servers using Xeon processors.

Due to an undisclosed reason, yields of a chipset component were lower than expected, as a result, ServerWorks' ability to meet customers' quantity requirements in the short term was affected and is only planned to be resolved in April. The issue involved a subtle sub-micron metalization coupling effect is now corrected, however, it will definitely take some time to make the new chips.

It was not revealed which components’ yield was unsatisfactory as well as which chipsets’ shipments will be affected. Considering that core-logic sets from ServerWorks contain from 2 to 15 different chips, we can assume that the yield is definitely a vulnerable spot of all these products. If the yield of any key-components is low, there will be problems with delivering the whole series of Grand Champion products.

In case problems with shipments of ServerWorks’ Grand Champion chipsets for Xeon platforms are serious enough, it is very likely that certain servers’ shipments will be affected this quarter. Moreover, in case these products are in high demand, shortages of the parts may also occur in April.