14 DAY TRIAL // Just like the second generation of its Core processors, the Ivy Bridge architecture will also transition to the server space where Intel plans to use this design for the upcoming Xeon E3-1200 v2 CPU series, expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2012.
The v2 edition of the E3-1200 processors will be part of the company’s Carlow platform that outside of these chips will also include the C210 (Panther Point) chipset which retains compatibility with the current LGA 1155 socket.
Intel's Ivy Bridge processors are a die 22nm shrink of the Sandy Bridge chips and feature the same architecture which will receive a series of improvements.
In the consumer version of the architecture, these improvements include a better GPU with DirectX 11 support as well as 30% more EUs than the HD 3000 GPU used in the current second generation Core processors.
Other CPU features include better AVX performance, an integrated PCI Express 3.0 controller as well as native USB 3.0 support thanks to the Panther Point chipsets, which are expected to enter mass production in the final week of December 2011.
Right now, we don't know which of these features will head towards the Xeon E3 CPU lineup, but it's highly unlikely that the massively improved graphics core will make its appearance in more than a few E3-1200 v2 processors.
In the current version of the Xeon E3, only four out of the nine processors released by Intel come with integrated graphics support. On a plus side, all the chips support ECC memory, which is also expected to happen with the Ivy Bridge CPUs.
TDPs of the E3-1200 v2 chips will range from 95W for the high-end offerings, down to approximately 20W for the low power models.
Details regarding the specific processors Intel plans for Q2 2012 are not available yet, but CPU-World says that we should expect these to carry similar specs to the current E3-1200 chips, although with higher base and Turbo speeds.