All-new 32nm design will replace the Nehalem microarchitecture for desktops and laptops in Intel’s Core 2011 processor launch.
Intel’s next-gen processors will leave the labs towards the end of this year and slide straight into desktops and notebooks in early 2011.
Built on the new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, Intel says the chips will bring particular gains to laptops, with the fastest Sandy Bridge mobile processor 20% faster than its current equivalent while the physical package size will be 20% smaller.
Whereas this year’s Core 2010 line launch featured 32nm chips built around the Westmere ‘shink’ of the 45nm Nehalem architecture, Sandy Bridge is a new design built specifically for the 32nm platform.
Sandy Bridge chips are expected to be quad-core by default, compared to the dual-core Westmere line.
Entry-level processors in the Core 2011 line are likely to remain as dual-core, while six-core and possibly even eight-core Sandy Bridge superslabs could arrive later in the year.
Speeds are said to range from 2.8GHz to 3.4GHz, with Turbo Boost lifting the ceiling through to 3.8GHz.
The companion Cougar Point chipset will be able to support four displays – two with the processor’s own integrated on-chip graphics and two more directly from the chipset itself.
The Sandy Bridge platform will also be used for Intel’s first wave of ‘Ivy Bridge’ 22nm chips which due to be cut a year after the release of Sandy Bridge, and will in turn be followed by a native 22nm microarchitecture codenamed Haswell.