Computer Support Blog

With all of the leaps forward in the way entertainment is presented, from enhanced audio standards to 3-D Blu-Ray players, it is almost surprising to learn that microprocessor production has been occurring on a two-dimensional scale for so very long.  Even the current generation of microprocessors, in stores now, runs on transistors that are two dimensional.  While they are faster and more intricate than the earliest transistors from 1947, they are essentially the same design.  Until now, the transistor has been refined by improved manufacturing methods and changes in the materials used to manufacture them.  All of that is about to change, though.  Intel is releasing computers based on their Ivy Bridge technology, the world’s first transistors designed with three dimensional pathways!

The Ivy Bridge processor is a 3-D Tri-Gate transistor and what that means to consumers is that it is fast!  The Ivy Bridge processor advances the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture that Intel pioneered and released in 2011.  While the Sandy Bridge used circuit pathways that were 32 nanometers wide, the Ivy Bridge improved the pathway to 22 nanometers!  With that improvement in the die, Intel’s new Panther Point (Series 7) chips will have more transistors per chip . . . by several orders of magnitude!  The change in ten nanometers allows Intel to use a vastly greater number of transistors in their new chips.

What does this change mean for you?

It means that the new chips will be fast.  One of the first big indicators of the potential speed of the 3-D Tri-Gate design of the Ivy Bridge is that it will come with the USB 3.0 protocols fully integrated.  The integration of USB 3.0 ensures that the Ivy Bridge platform will remain on the cutting edge and will support virtually every computer-related device manufactured now and for years to come.  The Ivy Bridge processors use four cores with 1.4 billion transistors, compared to the 995 million transistors used in current Sandy Bridge processors.  The difference means 50% less power consumption and significantly faster processing speeds.  An Ivy Bridge processor ran 36.11 GFlops, a full 1 GFlop above the 2.3 Ghz Core i3 2100 Sandy Bridge processor.

Intel is also excited about the Ivy Bridge because of what it represents from a manufacturing standpoint.  The 22 nm pathways were hardly revolutionary from a research and design standpoint.  The idea of a 22 nm pathway was a pretty logical extension of the Sandy Bridge breakthrough.  But just because Intel could design the change did not mean they could execute the change easily and profitably.  However, the die shrink of the Sandy Bridge that allowed Intel to create the Ivy Bridge turned out to be a remarkably easy process when it came to manufacturing.  Intel not only could create the microprocessors in an academic, theoretical, sense, but it could mass produce them.

The Ivy Bridge processors will revolutionize computers and processors in handheld devices, keeping Intel on the cutting edge of the computer hardware supply chain!

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