X

Intel discloses new Sandy Bridge technical details

The upcoming chip architecture will integrate Intel's best graphics chip technology to date directly onto the central processing unit.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
See full bio
Brooke Crothers

SAN FRANCISCO--Intel revealed more technical specifics on its upcoming Sandy Bridge chip architecture during several technical sessions on Monday here at the Intel Developer Forum.

Sandy Bridge's claim to fame is graphics. It will integrate Intel's best graphics chip technology to date directly onto the central processing unit. Below are some slides that Intel released on Monday.

Thomas Piazza, an Intel fellow and director of graphics architecture for the Intel Architecture Group, said that Sandy Bridge-based chips in their current implementation will not support DirectX 11, a Microsoft technology for accelerating multimedia and games. Currently, Sandy Bridge supports DirectX 10.1 and OpenCL 1.1--the latter used on Apple's Mac operating systems, according to Piazza. Certain graphics chips from Advanced Micro Devices' ATI unit and Nvidia already support DirectX 11.

An overview of the Sandy Bridge architecture.
An overview of the Sandy Bridge architecture. Intel

Sandy Bridge's graphics architecture.
Sandy Bridge's graphics architecture. Intel

Sandy Bridge makes strides in power efficiency compared to current Intel Core i series chips since the graphics function is integrated onto the CPU.
Sandy Bridge makes strides in power efficiency compared to current Intel Core i series chips since the graphics function is integrated onto the CPU. Intel