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Friday, April 13, 2012
Intel's New "Ivy Bridge" 3D Chips May Launch April 23
Posted on 1:45 PM by Admin
It's almost time for systems based on Intel's Ivy Bridge chips to take their place in the spotlight. CNET says it has learned that the first of several Ivy Bridge-related announcements will transpire on April 23.
Ivy Bridge is Intel's codename for its follow-up to the Sandy Bridge
processor family. Ivy Bridge shrinks the manufacturing process from 32
nanometers to the 22nm Tri-Gate process Intel detailed last year.
Older processors are based on "planar" or flat 2D transistors, but
there's only so much headroom in chips based on 2D processes. By
switching to 3D transistors, Intel promises we'll see a 37 percent
increase in transistor switching speed as well as roughly half the power
consumption of 2D transistors.
Intel was originally tipped to launch Ivy Bridge in early April, but rumors suggest
the processors could be delayed because consumers weren't buying up
older notebooks quickly enough -- partly because the economy remains
sluggish, partly because Windows 8, an obvious sales driver, won't
arrive until sometime this fall. In late March, the rumored timeframe
for Ivy Bridge's debut shifted again to the last week of April.
When Ivy Bridge does arrive, shoppers can probably count on older
Sandy Bridge-based computers, particularly Ultrabooks -- which still
start at $800 and range to over $1,700 -- to plummet in price. Intel’s
general manager, Kirk Skaugen, recently said that current Ultrabook prices could drop to $699, and that 75 Ultrabook designs are in the pipeline, including hybrids that can shift from laptops to touchscreen tablets.
CNET’s report is seconded by Asian rumor site DigiTimes, which claims
Intel originally planned to announce Ivy Bridge's arrival April 29, but
kicked the announcement up a week (though it doesn't say why). April 29
is a Sunday, so the original Ivy Bridge launch date doesn't add up.
One
of the most anticipated albeit still rumored tie-ins to Ivy Bridge's
launch is the debut of 15- and 13-inch MacBook Pros from Apple. The
laptops are reportedly in production, and they may resemble the MacBook
Air in terms of the Air's tapered, blade-like design. When might we see
those? As early as May, or as late as June, according to the rumor mill.
On the Windows side of mobile, DigiTimes says to expect Ultrabooks from Asustek, Acer, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo in May.
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