Intel is firing up Ivy Bridge for one more round, and that is in the ULV or Ultra Low Voltage category. This news comes as a little bit of a surprise as we already know Intel is aiming for that market and territory with their next generation Core processors based on Intel's Haswell architecture. We know for sure that with Haswell, Intel aims to lower TDPs for it's ULV mobile processors for good. But then again, if that's the plan, why introduce a product based on existing architecture already? Perhaps things will become clearer in the coming months as we approach the launch of Intel's next generation Haswell based Core processors.
ULV Ivy Bridge Processors
Intel's Ultra Low Voltage Ivy Bridge processors, till now had TDPs north of 17W. Intel aims to change that by introducing new processors (with cut down clock speeds and features) which take the TDP south of 13W to 10W (and even make 7W a possibility).
The 10W wonder
That is probably as low as Intel can get with cutting down specifications. As we can see, they have pretty much played a hack and slash game with their processor and churned out the Pentium 2129Y processor. The GPU may be HD 4000 based or a cut down HD 2500 based one. Either way, don't expect any wonders in the performance department from this little (literally) baby.
Let's see if the 13W counterpart fares better.
Hotter at 13W
Hyper Threading is the new feature in the Core i3 Y series processor. Apart from that, the HD 4000 GPU is confirmed. We believe the clock speed to be around 650 MHz (can be slower, not confirmed). The L3 cache gets a boost by 1 MB to 3 MB in this model. Turbo is still absent.
That's not all. Intel is offering Core i5 parts chugging at 13W TDPs as well.
What's new in the Core i5 Y series processors is Turbo (after Hyper Threading, giving 4 logical threads). While one processor goes up to 2 GHz, the other one moves all the way up to 2.3 GHz under Turbo mode. This is a boon for single threaded applications and those applications which are still unable to work more efficiently with multi-core processors.
Pretty decent right? These chips actually promise of a somewhat decent performance, even at just 13W. The Core i5 parts introduce But Intel is taking it one more step further with their last processor in the upcoming lineup.
Now that's what we are talking about, a CPU which can actually perform and a GPU decent enough to allow entry level gaming at the same time.
This video, of the HD 4000 GPU running Crysis 2 shows that entry level is not what some of these aforementioned chips will be limited to. Have a look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJM9bmhhWDE
Also included is an interesting feature. All of these 5 new chips support something called cTDP Down Mode. This essentially lets manufacturers limit TDP of the chip, all the way down to 7W (sacrificing performance of course). This cooks up interesting possibilities. Perhaps Intel made this move to capture some share of Windows 8 tablets running on AMD chips instead. Let's see where this leads to.
We expect these new Ivy Bridge processors to appear in Q1 2013. This probably puts Haswell for Q2 2013, at the earliest.
ULV Ivy Bridge Processors
Intel's Ultra Low Voltage Ivy Bridge processors, till now had TDPs north of 17W. Intel aims to change that by introducing new processors (with cut down clock speeds and features) which take the TDP south of 13W to 10W (and even make 7W a possibility).
The 10W wonder
- Pentium 2129Y
- 1.1 GHz dual core
- no Hyper Threading
- no Turbo
- 2 MB of L3 Cache
- 850 MHz GPU (HD 2500 or HD 4000?)
- 10W TDP
That is probably as low as Intel can get with cutting down specifications. As we can see, they have pretty much played a hack and slash game with their processor and churned out the Pentium 2129Y processor. The GPU may be HD 4000 based or a cut down HD 2500 based one. Either way, don't expect any wonders in the performance department from this little (literally) baby.
Let's see if the 13W counterpart fares better.
Hotter at 13W
- Core i3-3229Y
- 1.4 GHz dual core
- Hyper Threading
- no Turbo
- 3 MB of L3 cache
- HD 4000 GPU
- 13W TDP
Hyper Threading is the new feature in the Core i3 Y series processor. Apart from that, the HD 4000 GPU is confirmed. We believe the clock speed to be around 650 MHz (can be slower, not confirmed). The L3 cache gets a boost by 1 MB to 3 MB in this model. Turbo is still absent.
That's not all. Intel is offering Core i5 parts chugging at 13W TDPs as well.
- Core i5 3339Y and Core i5 3439Y
- 1.5 GHz dual core
- Hyper Threading
- Turbo (2 GHz for i5 3339Y, and 2.3 GHz for i5 3439Y)
- 3 MB of L3 Cache
- HD 4000 GPU
- 13W TDP
What's new in the Core i5 Y series processors is Turbo (after Hyper Threading, giving 4 logical threads). While one processor goes up to 2 GHz, the other one moves all the way up to 2.3 GHz under Turbo mode. This is a boon for single threaded applications and those applications which are still unable to work more efficiently with multi-core processors.
Pretty decent right? These chips actually promise of a somewhat decent performance, even at just 13W. The Core i5 parts introduce But Intel is taking it one more step further with their last processor in the upcoming lineup.
- Core i7 3689Y
- 1.5 GHz dual core
- Hyper Threading
- Turbo upto 2.6 GHz
- 4 MB of L3 Cache
- HD 4000 GPU @ 850 MHz
- 13W TDP
Now that's what we are talking about, a CPU which can actually perform and a GPU decent enough to allow entry level gaming at the same time.
This video, of the HD 4000 GPU running Crysis 2 shows that entry level is not what some of these aforementioned chips will be limited to. Have a look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJM9bmhhWDE
Also included is an interesting feature. All of these 5 new chips support something called cTDP Down Mode. This essentially lets manufacturers limit TDP of the chip, all the way down to 7W (sacrificing performance of course). This cooks up interesting possibilities. Perhaps Intel made this move to capture some share of Windows 8 tablets running on AMD chips instead. Let's see where this leads to.
We expect these new Ivy Bridge processors to appear in Q1 2013. This probably puts Haswell for Q2 2013, at the earliest.