1,4 billion transistors at only 160mm²

Ivy Bridge will be the first 22 nanometer based circuit in the world and today it looks like Intel will have a continued advantage for the next few years. Intel has with their new manufacturing process increased the transistor count by approximately 40 percent in comparison to Sandy Bridge and at the same time managed to shrink the circuits surface area from 216 mm² to only 160 mm².

Ivy_diesize

Feature Cores L2 cache L3 cache Technology Transistors Circuit area
Ivy Bridge 4 4 x 256 KB 8 MB 22nm Bulk/HKMG/Tri-gate 1 400 mil. 160 mm²
Sandy Bridge 4 4 x 256 KB 8 MB 32nm
Bulk/HKMG
995 mil. 216 mm²
Sandy Bridge-EP 8 8 x 256 KB 20 MB 32nm
Bulk/HKMG
2 270 mil. 435 mm²
Sandy Bridge-E 4 4 x 256 10 MB 32nm
Bulk/HKMG
1 270 mil. 294 mm²
Zambezi 8 4 x 2 MB 8 MB 32nm
SOI/HKMG
~2 000 mil. 315 mm²
Thuban 6 6 x 512 KB 6 MB 45nm
SOI/HKMG
904 mil. 346 mm²
Llano Wintercreek 2 2 x 1 MB 32nm
SOI/HKMG
758 mil. ?
Llano Beavercreek 4 4 x 1 MB 32nm
SOI/HKMG
1 450 mil. 228 mm²
Westmere 6 6 x 256 KB 12 MB 32nm
Bulk/HKMG
1 170 mil. 240 mm²
Sandy Bridge 2 2 x 256 KB 4 MB 32nm
Bulk/HKMG
624 mil. 149 mm²
Sandy Bridge 2 2 x 256 KB 3 MB 32nm
Bulk/HKMG
504 mil. 131 mm²
Regor 2 2 x 1 MB 45nm
SOI
234 mil. 117 mm²
Propus 4 4 x 512 KB 45nm
SOI
300 mil. 169 mm²
Deneb 4 4 x 512 KB 6 MB 45nm
SOI
758 mil. 258 mm²
Penryn 2 6 MB 45nm
Bulk/HKMG
410 mil. 107 mm²
Bloomfield 4 4 x 256 KB 8 MB 45nm
Bulk/HKMG
731 mil. 263 mm²
Lynnfield 4 4 x 256 KB 8 MB 45nm
Bulk/HKMG
774 mil. 296 mm²
Clarkdale 2 2 x 256 KB 4 MB 32nm
Bulk/HKMG
383 mil. 81 mm²

While Ivy bridge is just a Tick in Intel’s Tick-Tock schedule they have still made a major increase in transistors. In every Tick Intel makes small changes and adjustments to get higher performance and power effiency, also fixing bugs in the architecture. Although that’s not enough to cover and justify a 40 percent increase.

In the new Gen 7 graphics architecture which is a development of their Gen 6 architecture and can be found in Sandry Bridge, Ivy Bridge comes with an improved integrated graphics circuit. The idea is to offer as much as possible, and in the future everything that’s needed in a computer on one single piece of silicon.

IVB_front

What we can expect in the future is a similar trend that will continue. Instead of making everything as tiny as possible the new manufacturing processes will be used to continue the integration of several components on one die. The integer unit, the memory controller, the northbridge and the graphics is just a few of the parts that has been built into the processor. At this point it’s just a matter of time before the southbridge will be built in – and in time even the RAM-memory.

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Marius
Medlem
Marius

Great review guys, i would really love to see you do much more of them =]

AlexCheveau
Gäst
AlexCheveau

A really great review, good job. Waiting to get my hands on it… but don’t know when it will arrive in Brazil

Andreas G
Medlem

Glad you liked it 🙂

We hope the new translators will have time for more of these.

Taki R
Gäst
Taki R

You used DDR3-1333 for AMD APU when it’s known that those processors need faster RAM to reach top performance, unlike Intel’s which don’t scale up accordingly. As it is, this is a very Intel-biased review.

pcpraise.com
Gäst

It seem Intel will beat AMD more with this line of new generation processor. It is faster and consume less power than sandy bridge and trinity. Core per core / clock per clock basis.
I really like to know though the performance and efficiency compare to AMD trinity.

WILLENALDO
Gäst
WILLENALDO

É realmente incrível todo esse progresso/evolução da INTEL.
BRASIL – CRATO – CEARÁ

WILLENALDO
Gäst
WILLENALDO

É realmente incrível todo esse progresso/evolução da INTEL.
BRASIL – CRATO – CEARÁ

tecnotron
Gäst
tecnotron

What happens if I put a 125w TDP CPU on a 95w motherboard? If I have a quad-core CPU and disable 2 cores will my CPU fit in the 95w TDP?