Smooth2o:
Current MBs can not be upgraded as the VRMs in them plus the BIOS precludes higher precision in Vcc requests. Hint the VRMs are soldered into the board (especially in mobiles as height is a major consideration. Thus no current MB will accept Conroe, Merom and Woodcrest. Could they have started Napa MBs for Merom? Yes they could, but that doesn't happen normally. What MB OEMs likely did is waited for Santa Rosa to make the VRM/BIOS changes. Why change twice and double design, testing and Q/C? Change once and save money. Santa Rosa would not have been much later than the new VRMs on the old roadmap.
Now Santa Rosa slipped by a quarter or two. TTM may make two changes necessary to maintain or increase market share as most customers won't wait 1 to 2 more quarters. Now they start the VRM/BIOS changes for Napa MBs. If everything goes exactly to plan, they may make the holiday build season. But any problems and they will miss and have to release in late Q4. They still will have Merom capable Napa MBs at least one quarter before Santa Rosa MBs, but will it bring in enough money to pay for the extra design, testing and Q/C? Will Santa Rosa slip more making it easier to justify the costs? Only they could know that.
In either case, Merom MBs will be delayed a quarter and maybe more. You might get a few early, but those will likely be grabbed up for prototype testing with the usual caveats at rediculously high prices. None of the big notebook OEMs will likely use the few Merom capable MBs left to do a launch.
One kicker for those who take the plunge, is that Intel could shaft them by delaying Merom itself making all of their hard work go down the drain. Given Intel's recent history, that is not a small risk anymore.
Pete
