Sandy Bridge is the next generation processor architecture from Intel. With the new 32nm architecture Intel will bake a GPU into the die. This will be the beginning of a new large scale venture from Intel and even if the sales aren’t expected to pick up until 2011 it will be shipping loads this year already.
Intel foremost targets the mid-range segment with the Sandy Bridge architecture and the LGA 1155 platform. The first processors are expected to launch as part of the Core i3, i5 and i7 families with two or four cores.
By the fourth quarter Intel is expected to ship hundreds of thousands Sandy Bridge processors to partners that by then have prepared systems and computer before the commercial launch in Q1 2011. No less than 3% of all shipped desktop processors that will ship from Intel in Q4 will be based on Sandy Bridge. In Q1 this is expected to increase to between 12-13%.
The performance of the new processors have been promising in the first previews, but even if we are dealing with a new architecture we shouldn’t expect any major boosts in performance, even if the new AVX instructions may result in noticeable gains in heavy floating number calculations and media operations.
