Ivy Bridge (microarchitecture)

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: • A new 22 nm Tri-gate transistor ("3-D") technology offers 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 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, depending on the micro-operation cache hit or miss • Supervisor Mode Execution Prevention • CPUID Faulting support : GPU • The built-in GPU has 6 or 16 execution units (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 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 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, The TIM has much lower thermal conductivity, causing heat to trap on the die. 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 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, 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 LGA 2011 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: • KUnlocked (adjustable CPU multiplier up to 63 times) • SPerformance-optimized lifestyle (low power with 65 W TDP) • TPower-optimized lifestyle (ultra-low power consumption with 35–45 W TDP) • PNo on-die video chipset • XExtreme performance (adjustable CPU ratio with no ratio limit) Server processors Suffixes to denote: • LLow power • CEmbedded applications • WOptimized for workstations Mobile processors Suffixes to denote: • YFanless Ultrabook: Dual-core extreme ultra-low power (TDP 13 W, SDP 7 W) • UFanned Ultrabook: Dual-core ultra-low power (TDP 17 W) • CCommunications • MDual-core • QMQuad-core • XMQuad-core extreme performance (adjustable CPU ratio with no ratio limit) • MEDual-core embedded == Roadmap ==

Intel demonstrated the Haswell architecture in September 2011, which began release in 2013 as the successor to Sandy Bridge 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. == See also ==