Ivy Bridge is the

codename A code name, codename, call sign, or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in ...

for Intel's 22 nm

microarchitecture In electronics, computer science and computer engineering, microarchitecture, also called computer organization and sometimes abbreviated as μarch or uarch, is the way a given instruction set architecture (ISA) is implemented in a particular ...

used in the third generation of the Intel Core processors ( Core i7, i5, i3). Ivy Bridge is a

die shrink The term die shrink (sometimes optical shrink or process shrink) refers to the List of semiconductor scale examples, scaling of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) devices. The act of shrinking a Die (integrated circuit), die creates a somewhat ...

to 22 nm process based on

FinFET A fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) is a multigate device, a MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor) built on a substrate where the gate is placed on two, three, or four sides of the channel or wrapped around the chann ...

("3D") Tri-Gate transistors, from the former generation's 32 nm Sandy Bridge microarchitecture—also known as

tick–tock model Tick–tock was a production model adopted in 2007 by integrated circuit, chip manufacturer Intel. Under this model, every new process technology was first used to manufacture a die shrink of a proven microarchitecture (tick), followed by a new mic ...

. The name is also applied more broadly to the

Xeon Xeon (; ) is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same archite ...

and Core i7 Extreme Ivy Bridge-E series of processors released in 2013. Ivy Bridge processors are

backward compatible In telecommunications and computing, backward compatibility (or backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, software, real-world product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with inpu ...

with the Sandy Bridge platform, but such systems might require a firmware update (vendor specific). In 2011, Intel released the 7-series Panther Point chipsets with integrated USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 to complement Ivy Bridge. Volume production of Ivy Bridge chips began in the third quarter of 2011. Quad-core and dual-core-mobile models launched on April 29, 2012 and May 31, 2012 respectively. Core i3 desktop processors, as well as the first 22 nm

Pentium Pentium is a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel from 1993 to 2023. The Pentium (original), original Pentium was Intel's fifth generation processor, succeeding the i486; Pentium was Intel's flagship proce ...

, were announced and available the first week of September 2012. Ivy Bridge is the last Intel platform on which Windows older than

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

and Windows Server older than

Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2, codenamed "Windows Server 7" or "Windows Server 2008 Release 2", is the eighth major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It was release ...

are officially supported by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. It is also the earliest Intel microarchitecture to officially support

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

64-bit (NT 10.0).

Overview

The Ivy Bridge CPU microarchitecture is a shrink from Sandy Bridge and remains largely unchanged. Like its predecessor, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge was also primarily developed by Intel's Israel branch, located in Haifa, Israel. Notable improvements include: * New 22 nm Tri-gate transistor ("3-D") technology offer as much as a 50% reduction to power consumption at the same performance level as compared to 2-D planar transistors on Intel's 32 nm process. * A new

pseudorandom number generator A pseudorandom number generator (PRNG), also known as a deterministic random bit generator (DRBG), is an algorithm for generating a sequence of numbers whose properties approximate the properties of sequences of random number generation, random n ...

and the RDRAND instruction, codenamed Bull Mountain.

Ivy Bridge features and performance

The mobile and desktop Ivy Bridge chips also include some minor yet notable changes over Sandy Bridge:

CPU

* F16C (16-bit floating-point conversion instructions) * RDRAND instruction (Intel Secure Key) * Max CPU multiplier of 63 (versus 57 for Sandy Bridge) * Configurable TDP (cTDP) for mobile processors * A 14- to 19-stage

instruction pipeline In computer engineering, instruction pipelining is a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a single processor. Pipelining attempts to keep every part of the processor busy with some instruction by dividing incoming Mac ...

, depending on the

micro-operation cache A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to a processor core, whic ...

hit or miss * Supervisor Mode Execution Prevention * CPUID Faulting support :

GPU

* The built-in GPU has 6 or 16

execution units In computer engineering, an execution unit (E-unit or EU) is a part of a processing unit that performs the operations and calculations forwarded from the instruction unit. It may have its own internal control sequence unit (not to be confused w ...

(EUs), compared to Sandy Bridge's 6 or 12. * Intel HD Graphics with DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.0, and OpenCL 1.2 support on Windows. On Linux, OpenGL 4.2 is supported since

Mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...

17.1. * Support for up to three displays (with some limitations: with chipset of 7-series and using two of them with DisplayPort or eDP) * Multiple 4K displays video playback * Intel Quick Sync Video version 2

IO

* RAM support up to 2800 MT/s in 200 MHz increments * DDR3L for mobile CPUs * PCI Express 3.0 support (omitted on Core i3, Pentium, and ultra-low-voltage LVprocessors)

Benchmark comparisons

Compared to its predecessor, Sandy Bridge: * 3% to 6% increase in CPU performance when compared clock for clock * 25% to 68% increase in integrated GPU performance

Thermal performance issues

Ivy Bridge's temperatures are reportedly 10°C higher compared to Sandy Bridge when a CPU is overclocked, even at default voltage setting. Impress PC Watch, a Japanese website, performed experiments that confirmed earlier speculations that this is because Intel used a poor quality (and perhaps lower cost) thermal interface material (thermal paste, or "TIM") between the chip and the heat spreader, instead of the fluxless solder of previous generations. The mobile Ivy Bridge processors are not affected by this issue because they do not use a heat spreader between the chip and cooling system. Socket 2011 Ivy Bridge processors continue to use the solder. Enthusiast reports describe the TIM used by Intel as low-quality, and not up to par for a "premium" CPU, with some speculation that this is by design to encourage sales of prior processors. Further analyses caution that the processor can be damaged or void its warranty if home users attempt to remedy the matter. The TIM has much lower

thermal conductivity The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to heat conduction, conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa and is measured in W·m−1·K−1. Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low ...

, causing heat to trap on the die. Experiments with replacing this TIM with a higher-quality one or other heat removal methods showed a substantial temperature drop, and improvements to the increased voltages and overclocking sustainable by Ivy Bridge chips. Intel claims that the smaller die of Ivy Bridge and the related increase in thermal density is expected to result in higher temperatures when the CPU is overclocked; Intel also stated that this is as expected and will likely not improve in future revisions.

Models and steppings

All Ivy Bridge processors with one, two, or four cores report the same CPUID model 0x000306A9, and are built in four different configurations differing in the number of cores, L3 cache and GPU execution units.

Ivy Bridge–based Xeon processors

Intel Ivy Bridge–based Xeon microprocessors (also known as Ivy Bridge-E) is the follow-up to Sandy Bridge-E, using the same CPU core as the Ivy Bridge processor, but in

LGA 2011 LGA 2011, also called ''Socket R'', is a CPU socket by Intel released on November 14, 2011. It launched along with LGA 1356 to replace its predecessor, LGA 1366 (Socket B) and LGA 1567. While LGA 1356 was designed for dual-processor or ...

, LGA 1356 and LGA 2011-1 packages for workstations and servers. Additional high-end server processors based on the Ivy Bridge architecture, code named Ivytown, were announced September 10, 2013 at the Intel Developer Forum, after the usual one year interval between consumer and server product releases. The Ivy Bridge-EP processor line announced in September 2013 has up to 12 cores and 30 MB third level cache, with rumors of Ivy Bridge-EX up to 15 cores and an increased third level cache of up to 37.5 MB, (citin
an original post by Hassan Mujtaba on the same website
although an early leaked lineup of Ivy Bridge-E included processors with a maximum of 6 cores. Both Core-i7 and Xeon versions are produced: the Xeon versions marketed as Xeon E5-1400 v2 act as drop-in replacements for the existing Sandy Bridge-EN based Xeon E5, Xeon E5-2600 V2 versions act as drop-in replacements for the existing Sandy Bridge-EP based Xeon E5, while Core-i7 versions designated i7-4820K, i7-4930K and i7-4960X were released on September 10, 2013, remaining compatible with the X79 and

hardware. For the intermediate LGA 1356 socket, Intel launched the Xeon E5-2400 v2 (codenamed Ivy Bridge-EN) series in January 2014. These have up to 10 cores. A new Ivy Bridge-EX line marketed as Xeon E7 v2 had no corresponding predecessor using the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture but instead followed the older Westmere-EX processors.

List of Ivy Bridge processors

Processors featuring Intel's HD 4000 graphics (or HD P4000 for Xeon) are set in bold. Other processors feature HD 2500 graphics or HD Graphics unless indicated by N/A.

Desktop processors

List of announced desktop processors, as follows:

Requires a compatible motherboard with 7 series chipsets.

Suffixes to denote: * K Unlocked (adjustable CPU multiplier up to 63 times) * S Performance-optimized lifestyle (low power with 65 W TDP) * T Power-optimized lifestyle (ultra-low power consumption with 35–45 W TDP) * P No on-die video chipset * X Extreme performance (adjustable CPU ratio with no ratio limit)

Server processors

Suffixes to denote: * L Low power * C Embedded applications * W Optimized for workstations

Mobile processors

Suffixes to denote: * Y Fanless Ultrabook: Dual-core extreme ultra-low power (TDP 13 W, SDP 7 W) * U Fanned Ultrabook: Dual-core ultra-low power (TDP 17 W) * C Communications * M Dual-core * QM Quad-core * XM Quad-core extreme performance (adjustable CPU ratio with no ratio limit) * ME Dual-core embedded

Roadmap

Intel demonstrated the Haswell architecture in September 2011, which began release in 2013 as the successor to

Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge is the List of Intel codenames, codename for Intel's 32 nm process, 32 nm microarchitecture used in the second generation of the Intel Core, Intel Core processors (Intel Core i7, Core i7, Intel Core i5, i5, Intel Core i3, i3). The Sa ...

and Ivy Bridge.

Fixes

Microsoft has released a microcode update for selected Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPUs for Windows 7 and up that addresses stability issues. The update, however, negatively impacts Intel G3258 and 4010U CPU models.

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ivy Bridge Intel x86 microprocessors Computer-related introductions in 2012 Intel microarchitectures X86 microarchitectures fr:Ivy Bridge