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Intel Invents New 3 Dimensional Transistor for 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs, Dubs it "Tri-Gate"
Subject: General Tech, Processors | May 4, 2011 - 01:55 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: transistor, Intel
"After a decade of research, Intel has unveiled the world's first three dimensional transistor" states Mark Bohr, a Senior Fellow for Intel. Silicon based transistors in computers, mobile devices, vehicles, and embedded equipment have only existed in a planar, or two dimensional, form until today.
The new three dimensional transistor, dubbed "Tri-Gate," is now ready for high volume production, and will be included in Intel's new Ivy Bridge 22nm processors. This new Tri-Gate transistor is a huge deal for Intel as it will enable them to maintain the pace of current chip evolution as outlined by Moore's Law. If you are not familiar with Moore's Law, it states that approximately every 18 months, transistor density will double, bringing with it increases in performance and yeild while decreasing cost of production. Intel states that "It has become the basic business model for the semiconductor industry for more than 40 years."
As processors become smaller and smaller, the electric current becomes more and more difficult to contain. There are hundreds of thousands of minute connections and switches inside today's processors, and as manufacturing processes shrink, the amount of current leakage increases. With Intel's Core 2 Duo processors, Intel created a new "high-k"(high dielectric constant, which is a property of matter relating to the amount of charge it can hold) metal gate transistor using a material called Hafnium. The new material replaced the silicon dioxide dielectric gate of the transistor to combat the current leakage problem at 32nm. This allowed the chip process to shrink while scaling to produce less current leakage and heat. To be more specific, Intel states that "because high-k gate dielectrics can be several times thicker, they reduce gate leakage by over 100 times. As a result, these devices run cooler."
Unfortunately, at the much smaller 22nm process, Intel was not achieving results congruent with Moore's Law using even their high-k gate transistors. In order to maintain the scaling predicted in Moore's Law, Intel had to once again re-invent their transistors. In order to create a smaller manufacturing process while overcoming current leakage, Intel had to develop a way to use more of what little space they had available to them. It is here that they entered the third dimension. By designing a transistor that is able to control the electrical current on three sides instead of a single plane, they are able to shrink the transistor while ending up with more surface area to "control the stream" as Mark Bohr puts it.
The proposed benefits of Tri-Gate lie in it's ability to operate at lower voltages, with higher energy efficiency, all while running cooler and faster than ever before. More specifically, up to 37 percent increases in performance at low voltages versus Intel's current line of 32nm processors. Intel further states that "the new transistors consume less than half the power when at the same performance as 2-D planar transistors on 32nm chips." This means that at the same performance level of the current crop of Intel CPUs, Ivy Bridge will be able to do the same calculations either while using half the power needed of Sandy Bridge or nearly twice as fast (it is unlikely to scale perfectly as there is overhead and other elements of the chip that will not be as radically revamped) at the same level of power consumption. If this sort of scaling turns out to be true for the majority of Ivy Bridge chips, the overclocking abilities and resulting performance should be of unprecedented levels.
The use of Tri-Gate transistors is also mentioned as being beneficial for mobile and handheld devices as the power efficiency should allow increases in battery life. This is due to the chip running at decreased voltages while maintaining (at least) the same level of performance as current mobile chips. While Intel did not demo any mobile CPUs, they did state that Tri-Gate transistors may be integrated into future Atom chips.
Graphics shipments rise 10% despite falling PC sales; NVIDIA share drops
Subject: Graphics Cards, Processors | May 3, 2011 - 10:37 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: jpr, nvidia, gpus, amd, Intel
In a mixed report coming from Jon Peddie Research, information about the current state of the GPU world is coming into focus. Despite seeing only 83 million PCs shipping in Q1 2011 (a 5.4% drop compared to Q4 2010), the shipment of GPUs rose by 10.3%. While this no doubt means that just as many in the industry have been predicting, the GPU is becoming more important to the processing and computing worlds, there are several factors that should be considered before taking this news as win for the market as whole.
First, these results include the GPUs found in Intel and AMD’s CPU/GPU combo processors like the Sandy Bridge platforms, AMD’s Fusion APU and the more recent Intel Atom cores as well. If a notebook or desktop system then ships with a discrete solution from AMD or NVIDIA in addition to one of those processors, then the report indicates that two GPUs have shipped. We can assume then that because ALL Sandy Bridge processors include a GPU on them that much of this rise is due to the above consideration.
Ultimate 45nm silicon, the last of the Phenon X4s
Subject: Processors | May 3, 2011 - 01:04 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: phenom ii, x4, amd, 980, 45nm
Remember the Phenom II, that CPU which was once incredible but is now the processor that those waiting for Llano are getting a little bored with? It has a new flagship model for the X4 series, called the X4 980 which runs at 3.7GHz and sports the same 45nm technology we have come to know so well. Read on to see if Josh could find anything about the last of the 45nms that will knock the dust off his case or if we are looking at more of the same, if slightly faster, silicon.
"In the end, this is a simple 100 MHz increase in clockspeed for AMD for their high end quad core processor. It is not all that much faster than the previous X4 975, but at least it does not consume all that much more power than the previous model. It is a good all-around performer, and would make a solid foundation for a productivity and gaming machine for most users. Invariably though, most eyes are drawn to the horizon and the promise of Llano and Bulldozer. Hopefully for AMD these next generation processors will allow them to more adequately compete with Intel when it comes to raw performance."
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- AMD's Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor @ The Tech Report
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition @ AnandTech
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition @ Techware Labs
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition @ Bjorn3D
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Review @ Neoseeker
- AMD Phenom-II X4-980 BE Processor @ Benchmark Reviews
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Processor Review @ OCC
- AMD Phenom II x4 980 Black Edition @ Overclockers.com
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Processor Review @ HardwareHeaven
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Processor Review @ Hardware Canucks
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Quad-Core CPU Review @ Legit Reviews
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition @ Legion Hardware
- Sandy Bridge and Lynnfield Quad-Core Processors Compared @ iXBT Labs
AMD Llano Integrated Graphics Looks Like HD 6550
Subject: Graphics Cards, Processors | May 2, 2011 - 07:59 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: llano, fusion, amd
On Valentine’s Day, AMD reached out to us after our relationship with Intel’s Sandy B. broke down. A mug, some chocolate, and a promise of a wonderful date with their good friend Llano was AMD’s hope to help us move on to a more stable relationship. Months have gone by and we have made up with Sandy with many a great SATAday spent together. While Llano has yet to appear, AMD did urge us to keep waiting by revealing some of her measurements and an option for another playful partner.
Image from Donanim Haber
Llano’s GPU, as reported by Donanim Haber (translated to English), will feature 400 stream processors which will be clocked at 594 MHz. TechPowerUp also reports that it will be DirectX 11 compatible as expected and can pair up with one of AMD’s “Turks” based discrete GPUs: the HD 6570 and HD 6670. This combined GPU will be registered to the system as a Radeon HD6690 using Hybrid CrossFireX.
Just under two weeks ago we reviewed the aforementioned "Turks" based HD 6670 and 6570 with games like Left 4 Dead 2. Alone, those cards were able to play many games with antialiasing for people with monitor resolutions of 1680x1050. Llano will not perform as well as those cards but should be able to play those same games, and others, with just a few settings reduced. That said, Llano is also not a discrete card and thus it is not necessarily fair to compare it with one. Lastly, Llano can also be paired with those cards for further performance benefits making them all the more enticing for gamers not wishing to purchase higher end discrete graphics cards.
AMD hints at possible ARM processors
Subject: Processors | April 28, 2011 - 11:41 AM | Joe Kelly
Tagged: arm, amd
"AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced a distinguished line-up of keynote speakers as well as technical session topics for the inaugural AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS), which will be held June 13-16, 2011 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington.
Industry keynote presentations will be delivered by esteemed industry experts from AMD, ARM and Microsoft. In his keynote “Heterogeneous Parallelism at Microsoft” Herb Sutter, Microsoft principal architect of Native Languages, will showcase upcoming innovations to bring access to increasingly heterogeneous compute resources directly into the world’s most popular native languages.
Jem Davies, ARM fellow and vice president of Technology, Media Processing Division, will deliver a keynote about ARM’s long history of heterogeneous computing, its future strategy, and ARM’s support of standards, including OpenCL™."
Could AMD be developing ARM based products for tablets, netbooks, servers and smartphones? There will be a version of Windows 8 that is ARM compatible. AMD may be working on a version of Fusion that uses ARM instead of x86.
It would make sense for AMD to license the ARM architecture if they could compete with Nvidia’s Tegra and Qualcomm’s snapdragon processors. AMD has a proven track record in creating graphics cards and so does NVidia. Will that give AMD an advantage from the start? Can AMD produce a better product or a product that is used in different types of applications that Tegra or future Tegra products were not designed for?
For several years now AMD has always been playing catch-up with Intel’s x86 processors and there in no end in sight. Will Bulldozer give AMD the performance catch-up needed to be faster the Intel? I doubt it or at least not when Sandy Bridge-EX comes out in Q4 of 2011.
We will have more information after the AMD Fusion Developer Summit.
Watt matters to energy efficient system users
Subject: Processors | April 21, 2011 - 04:57 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: atom, brazos, sandy bridge, energy efficient
On the AMD side there is the Brazos E-350 based platform and on the other is the Intel Core i3-2100T. One other choice would be to compare it to the aging Atom platform, which is missing some of the enhancements the more modern platforms have but is certainly energy efficient. Check out who can score the lowest at X-Bit Labs.
"The variety of components for small energy-efficient systems keeps growing day by day. In this review we are going to talk about energy-efficiency processors: AMD E-350 (Zacate) and Intel Core i3-2100T (Sandy Bridge). We will also discuss new Mini-ITX mainboards: Gigabyte E350N-USB3 (AMD Brazos platform) and Zotac H67-ITX WiFi (for LGA1155 processors)."
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- Core i3-2120 and Core i3-2100 Processors @ X-bit Labs
- Intel Sandy Bridge Overclocking Guide @ Benchmark Reviews
- Intel Core i3 2100 @ Bjorn3D
- CPU Performance Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Desktop CPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Workstation & Server CPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
Gulftown versus SandyBridge
Subject: Processors | April 7, 2011 - 02:47 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged:
X-Bit Labs pits Intel's two superstars against each other, the mighty but slightly elderly i7-990X Extreme Edition and the brand new i7-2600K. They both have roughly the same 3.4GHz speed but achieve it in different ways, with the 990X running 133MHz with a 26x multiplier and the 2600K adds a 34x multiplier to the 100MHz base and both vary their speed depending on tasks. Turbo mode is also mostly the same, with the 2600K reaching a slight higher speed with it's 4/8 cores. Can the extra cores and enthusiast level motherboard on the 990X push the performance past the new technology in SandyBridge? Find out here.
"Intel started integrating the new Sandy Bridge processor microarchitecture not in the upper price segment, but in the mainstream LGA1155. This resulted in internal competition between the new LGA1155 and the old LGA1366 processors. So, which one will win in this round, the progressive Sandy bridge or the previous-generation Gulftown?"
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- Intel Core i7 990X Extreme @ Phoronix
- Intel Core i5-2300 @ TechwareLabs
- All Core i7 Models @ Hardware Secrets
- CPUs, Cores, Threads, what does it all mean? @ Funky Kit
- Mobile CPU Comparison Guide Rev. 6.9 @ TechARP
Of Linux and low end SandyBridge graphics performance
Subject: Processors | March 31, 2011 - 12:25 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged:
Any difficulties that Phoronix have encountered running Linux on SandyBridge platforms seem to have been taken as a personal insult and a challenge to be overcome. They've been working hard testing the hardware to its current limits on Linux and have recently started on the graphical testing. Drop by to see how well the support for Linux has been improved.
"On Wednesday we published our first compute performance numbers for the Core i3 2100, Intel's lowest-end "Sandy Bridge" processor at this point. This ~$125 USD processor was a step-up from the previous generation Clarkdale CPUs (roughly the Core i3 530), but obviously the Core i5 2500K was still a great deal faster. How's the Sandy Bridge graphics performance though with this low- end CPU? That is the focus of today's tests."
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- Intel Core i3 2100 Sandy Bridge @ Phoronix
- Intel Core i5-2300 @ TechwareLabs
- Intel Core i3-2100 @ iXBT Labs
- CPU Performance Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Workstation & Server CPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Desktop CPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Amd Phenom 2 X4 840 Cpu @ Rbmods
- AMD Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition @ Rbmods
Surprise Bulldozer; a sneak peek at the unreleased AMD processors
Subject: Processors | March 22, 2011 - 06:25 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged:
Phoronix noticed something very interesting on their OpenBenchmarking.org project. One submitter seems to be benchmarking a "AMD Eng Sample ZS182045TGG43_28" which appears to be one of the unreleased 16-core Interlagos Opterons. The 32 core, 1.8GHz beats Intel's newest on the Ray Tracing benchmark that was used to test performance and it shows great promise on two other benchmarks that were verified as valid. Some techies will also be very pleased that the new chips obviously have no problems with Linux.
"Lately we have been talking a lot about Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors under Linux due to their very competitive performance and interesting graphics abilities, but on the AMD side there has not been too much to talk about. On the low-end there is the intriguing Fusion APUs, but on the high-end they don't have an answer to Sandy Bridge until delivering their new "Bulldozer" products closer to the summer. Fortunately, we have the first Linux scoop and performance benchmarks from engineering samples of their 16-core Interlagos server chip."
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- Intel Sandy Bridge VA- API Video Acceleration Performance @ Phoronix
- Intel Core i3-2100 vs. AMD Phenom II X2 565 @ SPCR
- Desktop CPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Mobile CPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
The Core i7 990X Extreme would like a word with you
Subject: Processors | March 4, 2011 - 01:06 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged:
Core i7-990X is a little upset that no one is paying attention to it. Instead everyone is focused on what is a mid-range series of processors named SandyBridge that hangs out with a friend that doesn't like storage devices. It is after all the fastest that Intel offers and has support for a lot of features that SB won't have until the high end series is finally released.
Check out The Tech Report to see Intel's new flagship CPU in action.
"I hate to brag, but with six cores at 3.46GHz, a Turbo peak of 3.73GHz, 12MB of L3 cache, and three channels of DDR3 memory, I'm kind of a big deal. Add in the fact that my upper multipliers are unlocked so that I can be overclocked, and you can see why my asking price is one dollar short of a grand. If you still don't get it, just know that the valedictorian at your high school would probably have a nerdgasm over me. That's the sort of response I tend to provoke among dudes who know what I am. And ladies, of course. Both of them are pretty excited, too."
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- Intel Core i7 990X Hexcore 1366 @ OC3D
- Intel I7 -2600K Sandybridge Review @ Tweaknews
- Intel Celeron Dual Core E3300 CPU Review @ BayReviews
- Workstation & Server CPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- CPU Performance Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Mobile CPU Comparison Guide Rev 6.7 @ TechARP
- Foxconn AHD1S "AMD APU Onboard" Motherboard Review @ Madshrimps
- AMD E-350 Accelerated Processor @ X-bit Labs
More Bulldozer information, from ISSCC
Subject: Processors | February 22, 2011 - 02:32 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged:
Some news came out of the International Solid State Circuits Conference
about AMD's architecture refresh, which we all know as Bulldozer. Processor diagrams reveal information about the out of order (OoO) instruction capabilities as well as information about the L3 cache, something that caused problems in previous generations. Overclockers.com has linked to various posts detailing the new processor as well as adding information they've gleaned themselves.
Sandy Bridge CPUs back on sale at Newegg
Subject: Processors | February 17, 2011 - 07:39 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:
Well that's interesting, I got a tip from twitter (thanks john_blanton!) that Sandy Bridge processors were back on sale over at Newegg.com. Sure enough, that is indeed the case:
AMD wants APUs and Llano to be our Valentine
Subject: Processors | February 14, 2011 - 09:08 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:
I have to admit that sometimes AMD doesn't come off as the most modern and hip company when it comes to advertising, but today they did something quite "fresh" and humorous. When the door bell rang at 8am this morning and I found a small cubed package on the step, I honestly wasn't expecting anything. Inside I found a coffee mug with the label "I (heart) APU" on it filled with small chocolates.
Unfortunately my mug was in about a dozen pieces, but hey, the candy was still good!
Gauging the performance of SandyBridge
Subject: Processors | February 10, 2011 - 11:52 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged:
You could choose to find the delay of P67/H67 boards a major source of frustration, since you know they exist but not only hard to find but guaranteed to need an RMA. Or you could decide that this is a great way to ensure that hardware reviewers do all the heavy lifting for you in determining the best ways to overclock SandyBridge parts, leaving you to do fine tuning once you get your hands on a system. For those choosing the second option, you should drop by The Tech Report where they've just finished an investig
Intel shipping dual-core Sandy Bridge and current chipset
Subject: Processors | February 8, 2011 - 06:00 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:
An interesting twist in the continuing saga of Intel's "broken chipset" occurred over the last couple of days. First, Intel published a press release basically saying that they were going to allow shipments of their current chipset, still with the flaw, to certain manufacturers that agreed to implement certain work-arounds.
Newegg pulls Sandy Bridge CPUs and P67 MBs while NVIDIA snickers quietly
Subject: Processors | January 31, 2011 - 09:51 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:
We have already begun fielding questions on twitter and in the forums about what to do with existing systems and plans that readers had to build a Sandy Bridge system in the near future. In a sense, we were given our answer when a user pointed out that Newegg has pulled both the 2nd Gen Core i5/i7 processors and motherboards based on the P67/H67 chipsets.
Linux and SandyBridge, the CPU portion is certainly working well
Subject: Processors | January 28, 2011 - 11:12 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged:
A caller left a voicemail asking if Linux will support SandyBridge's GPU on PC Perspective Podcast #138 and we directed him to a certain Intel blog post. Over at Phoronix they are still trying to get the GPU acceleration to work perfectly, so far with mixed results. That has not stopped them from benchmarki
The other locked members of the SandyBridge family
Subject: Processors | January 18, 2011 - 12:58 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged:
Many of the reviews we have seen of SandyBridge processors have focused on the pair of unlocked processors, for quite obvious reasons. There are other members of the SB family that were released as well the Core-i5 2300, 2400 and 2500, all over 3GHz and around $200 in price. X-bit Labs pitted them against previous generation Intel CPUs as well as a pair of Phenom IIs, take a look at the results here.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Unveils Industry's First 28nm Signoff-Ready Digital Design Flows
Subject: Processors | January 13, 2011 - 11:16 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged:
Milpitas, Calif.
AMD fires CEO Dirk Meyer and begins hunt for new fall-man
Subject: Processors | January 10, 2011 - 06:00 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged:
In a move that is stunning to just about everyone, the Board of Directors at AMD has decided to part ways with CEO Dirk Meyer. Even after having...
initiatives including the launch of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the successful
settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion APUs to
the market"
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