CPU talking! And to get back into the bath, here is a small summary of the news coming from Intel in the coming months. Currently, the latest generation of processors available - those of the Core i7 - is based on the architecture "Nehalem", which has gradually replace the Core 2. The Quad-Core CPUs based on Nehalem are currently recorded in 45 nm and from September will be made in "Core i5, much more economical. In the second quarter 2010 (Q2'10) will appear first processors' Westmere ', always based on the Nehalem architecture. These will be the first recorded in 32 nm and some of them incorporate a chip integrated graphics (IGP) in the form of a second chip integrated on the same packaging. It was not until 2011 that Intel expected to announce its new architecture, named "Sandy Bridge".
In the labs of Intel, it is already on all future CPU. To learn more, we left our ears trainer over to reveal the current status of these projects. Core i5 'Lynnfield' are already packaged in their final boxes and will soon be ready to be delivered in mass among wholesalers. The first prototypes of processors based on 32 nm Westmere are themselves out of the factories (Tape-Out) at the beginning of the year and work very well in the regional R & D. The first of them, "Gulftown", a 6-core processor "Extreme Edition" equipped with 12 MB L3 cache will be available around May 2010 and was announced as being compatible with the motherboards X58/LGA1366 current.
But the most interesting is probably the Tape-Out early in June the first CPU to generation "Sandy Bridge", the next Intel microarchitecture. In hallucinatory world exclusive worldwide PC Canard unveils first photo of the newborn, barely a month. The A0 stepping die in this time is that of a processor Mainstream, ie designed to be integrated in a very large number of machines as sold at a reasonable price. It features quad-core, Hyper-Threading, the AES instructions of its predecessor, but also the famous new calculation unit vector "AVX", which leverages the capabilities of the SSE units as they previously knew. This time, it is now possible to use 4-bit operands of 256 instead of 2 / 3 operand 128 bit with the latest versions of SSE. Every heart of Sandy Bridge is equipped with 256 KB of L2 cache and shared L3 cache of 8 MB to which access has been accelerated through a ring architecture (ring). Time-to-L3 cache and fall to a minimum of 25 cycles. But that's not all: Sandy Bridge includes a Northbridge-based PCI Express links (over QPI in the Mainstream) and a dual memory controller supporting DDR3-1600.
Another innovation is the integrated GPU (IGP) that is both incorporated within the processor and therefore also recorded in 32 nm. Thanks to this reduction, access to L3 cache (which can also use it) and fast memory controller, the performance of this IGP should be comparable to those graphics cards input range of ATI and Nvidia in 2011. The size of this declination Quad Core Sandy Bridge is approximately 225 mm ² (each heart measuring about 20 mm ²) for a heat dissipation of about 85 Watts. Frequency side, it will take some steppings to know the limits of the heart, but initial estimates are between 2.8 and 3.4 GHz, with a Turbo mode between 3.8 and 4 GHz. Remember, this processor will not be the high end of the day. Other versions with 2 and 8 hearts are also provided (with respectively 4 and 16 MB L3 cache), but are not yet available at the prototype stage.
While we can not reveal to you some details of the architecture in the heart of Sandy Bridge, a few remain unknown. First, the Socket. According to the noises heard in corridors at a manufacturer of motherboard, the CPU should resume Socket 1156 of Clarkdale (generation "Westmere" above) but require a new chipset. Then, the performance of the integrated circuit graphics are all subject to speculation. We already know that the IGP Sandy Bridge will always be based on GMA and not on any variation of Larabee. With a frequency of approximately 1.2 GHz, this heart intended to be compatible with DirectX 11, should not be ridiculous but be a lightning war. Finally, the number of PCI Express link is still unknown. According to the first draft of the datasheet, this heart contain 20 lines PCI Express 2.0 (16x + 4x), but the information could not be confirmed ...
I guess thats what preview is for.
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