22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs Released by Intel

Published:2011/9/15 2:36:00 Author:Phyllis From:SeekIC

Intel revealed its first 22nm processor family Ivy Bridge at the Intel Developer Forum. The chips signify significant improvements in on-board graphics, overall performance and a handful of stepwise advances in power management and security.

The rivals of Intel like AMD and Nvidia have criticized Intel for relatively low performance graphics cores used in its chip sets and processors. With 22nm Ivy Bridge, the company is confident that the gap existing in its products will turn to the competitors’ side.

Besides supporting Microsoft’s Direct X 11 graphics APIs where Intel parts used to lag a generation, Ivy Bridge graphics also support three simultaneous displays and an L3 cache. According to the specific numbers, the graphics support 32 times more scatter/gather operations than the current Sandy Bridge chips, a fact that drew spontaneous applause from one attendee.

The core is not the first built on Intel’s leading edge process. Previous graphics cores lagged the latest process by one or two generations.

The 22nm process, with its tri-gate FinFET transistors, delivers twice the performance or half the power compared to 32nm Sandy Bridge chips. The current Sandy Bridge chips can decode in hardware up to 20 high def video streams simultaneously. Without providing hard numbers, Intel said it enhanced video performance of the Ivy Bridge cores in at least two ways. Designers boosted media sampler throughput for better scaling and filtering and added new color and contrast enhancements to the pixel-processing at the back end of the process.

A digital random number generator that meets key ANSI and FIPS security standards is added to the chip. It also embodies a capability to prevent security attacks based on a process requesting an escalation of privileges.

As for power management, Ivy Bridge can automatically route threads to the most power efficient core. It can also shut off I/O power to DDR memory in deep sleep states and optimize voltage use to the most optimal level.

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