Comparing Processor Architectures: Westmere vs. Sandy Bridge

When comparing the architectures in Westmere and Sandy Bridge, you can see the significant changes Intel has made with the new Sandy Bridge architecture. As you can see from these illustrations, Westmere included a separate northbridge, which contained the graphics and other components. With Sandy Bridge, though, the GPU is on the same die as the CPU, removing one of the key components of the northbridge. In Sandy Bridge, the System Agent serves as the equivalent to the northbridge (what Intel in the past sometimes called the �uncore�). The System Agent contains the display engine, DMI (desktop management interface), memory controller, PCI-E 2.0, and PCU (power control unit). The PCU handles all of the power and thermal management for the chip. It also controls the turbo technology built into Sandy Bridge. The System Agent is connected to the ring bus (the black line and red blocks in the illustration that connect the LLC, cores, graphics, and System Agent), another new addition in Sandy Bridge. Using a ring bus in a quad-core Sandy Bridge chip provides four times the LLC (last level cache, a.k.a. L3 cache) bandwidth than was available in the previous generation.

Source of Information : Computer Power User (CPU) December 2010

Intel : Behind The Name

Intel hasn�t officially announced the code for deciphering the names of the soon-to-be-released Sandy Bridge chips, but Intel sources have confirmed the names will work as shown here.

Intel will retain the Core i3, i5, i7 brand names from the previous generation for these processors. Intel has changed the �badge,� or logo, for the Sandy Bridge processors, as the i7, i5, and i3 names are more prominent than they were with the Nehalem architecture. For comparison, you can see the previous generation i7 badge, where the �i7� text designation is shaded and not as obvious and prominent.

A sample model name is shown below�Intel Core i5 2500K�along with a photo of a Sandy Bridge chip. We�ve broken down each segment of the model name so you know exactly what�s going on with Sandy Bridge�s naming scheme.

� The brand name and chip designation will lead off the model name.

� Next, because Sandy Bridge is the second generation of the Core i3/i5/i7 chips, Intel will add a �2� in front of the model number.

� Finally, some chips will include a letter as a final designation. The exact significance of all of the different letters is still not official, but �K� should signify a chip that can be overclocked, for example. An �S� chip should be a chip with a low clock speed, while a �T� chip should be one that runs at a low clock speed with a low TDP. Not every chip will have a letter identifier.

Source of Information : Computer Power User (CPU) December 2010