14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that the series which will eventually replace Sandy Bridge CPUs, Ivy Bridge by name, has actually entered mass production, so it should have no supply issues when it appears next year.
Right now, the world is waiting for a certain series of processors called Sandy Bridge-E, a revision, of sorts, of the Sandy Bridge.
Motherboard makers have been introducing, or leaking information about platforms designed for them, like the MSI X79A-GD65 8D.
What some might not know is that the real Sandy Bridge successor, called Ivy Bridge series, is already in the mass production stage.
The chips are built on the 22nm manufacturing process and will work about 20% better in general applications than the existing Core i series.
Enhanced AVX acceleration is one of the reasons behind this, while a new graphics core, with DirectX 11 support and OpenCL 1.1, is about 30% better in performance that the existing Intel integrated graphics.
Other specifications of the processors include PCI Express 3.0 x16, a PCI Express 2.0 x4 controller, some power management innovations and 22nm 3D tri-gate transistors that make low-voltage performance up to 37% better than what 32nm planar transistors allow.
"During the third quarter, we began volume production of Ivy Bridge on our 22nm process technology. 22nm will usher-in the era of 3D transistors, which will pay dividends in power, performance and density for generations to come," said Paul Otellini, chief executive officer of Intel, during a conference call with financial analysts.
For those who haven't yet learned, the first Ivy Bridge CPUs will make their appearance in March or April, 2011.
Desktop units will be the first out, since their high performance will make them the enthusiast segment's new favorite toy. Intel should provide an actual, detailed roadmap at some point between now and then (or leaks will do it in its stead).