Special editions of Sandy Bridge for overclockers

It has long been known that Intel has decided to significantly reduce the potential for overclocking processors Sandy Bridge, "tying" and other subsystems of the processor at the same clock. Fortunately, however, for overclockers, it seems to move around and modified models, which will have multiplier unlocked and available for experimentation.



The order K of Sandy Bridge will include models with identical "normal", the only difference being the unlocked multiplier (and the price, of course). Within the IDF carried out in San Francisco, Intel has made an initial demonstration of a Sandy Bridge K, who arrived in the frequency of 4.9GHz and with cooling by air. Those present said that the cooler used was very similar to the stock cooler of the Core i7 980X.



Not announced what exactly was the Sandy Bridge used on the show, but most are betting that this is the Core i7 2600K, with factory frequency 3.4GHz. If true, we are talking about overclocking the order of 45% air, which leaves many promises for the future.



So far, no information on an even Sandy Bridge K, beyond 2600, the Core i5 2500K. Rumors, in fact, indicate that prices will move in the range of $ 230 for a "small" processor and $ 350 for "great".

Intel unveils technical information for the Sandy Bridge

Intel disclosed technical information for the Sandy Bridge processors in IDF 2010, rekindling the battle of processors APU. The Sandy Bridge is the first generation of processors from Intel to incorporate the same die, CPU and GPU, unlike Westmere who had two separate die on the same chip. This allows two channels to share the cache, speeding up cooperation, but increasing energy efficiency.

"In a single chip, we gathered all the critical functions needed for computers. This is a very important chip for Intel." says Chief Executive of Intel Paul Otellini.

The new processors maintain their PCI Express controller that existed in the Nehalem and Westmere, but add a DisplayPort controller, but does not support DirectX 11. They will use dual channel DDR3 memory controller and rumors indicate that we will use a new socket, the LGA 1155, not confirmed by Intel.



In more technical features identify the AVX [Advanced Vector Extensions], a new set of commands increases performance parallel processing processes commonly used by multimedia applications. In addition doubles the range of floating point variables in the 256-bit, and implemented a new ring bus, which connects the core with cache, offering amazing bandwidth of 384GB/sec.

Finally it is noteworthy that the technology will affect Turboboost and GPU, giving extra power and fps for 10 to 20 seconds.

The Sandy Bridge will be the last processors to be manufactured with the technical integration lithography 32nm high-k metal gate second generation, and will follow Ivy Bridge being built on 22nm. The first Sandy Bridge will be released early next year.

So apparently in 2011, the battle will be between the Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer.

180 degrees turn from Intel on the subject of USB 3

Until recently, Intel has been reluctant to adopt version 3 of the well-known technology USB. However, that seems to have changed in recent days, the leading manufacturer of processors to The story even says that official notices are to be expected in the coming weeks.

Certainly, it seems that Intel did not calculate the market pressure. AMD will incorporate the technology in USB 3 chipsets to be released for Fusion and every indication this trend essentially If eventually the information is true, we will see USB 3 in chipsets that come processors Sandy Bridge. So far, there is no information on exactly what chipsets will support USB 3 and how many ports will be.

Rumors for a 256-bit memory interface in Radeon HD 6700

The year is coming to an end, this means new graphics cards from AMD. Officially, of course, the company has not announced anything about the technical specifications of new products, but the discussions on the upcoming Radeon HD 6000 give and take. The most recent reputation speaks for a significant strengthening of the cards that are the middle class.



Those who know little about the cards AMD, know that the Radeon HD 5700 that currently exist have 128-bit memory interface, which coupled with GDDR5 memory bandwidth gives the order of 76.8Gb / s in the case of 5770. The information indicates that the cards Radeon HD 6700 series will have 256-bit memory interface, which leads to better performance.



Maybe AMD wants to prevent leaks to the side of the integrated solutions CPU-GPU. Strengthening the middle class cards offer an extra weapon in the battle with the coming of Sandy Bridge by Intel, who have graphics performance similar to the Radeon HD 5450.



To be clear, however, those are rumors for now and nothing should be assumed by the Communications of AMD.