Ivy Bridge (microarchitecture)

Ivy Bridge is a 2012 CPU microarchitecture developed by Intel, and is used for third generation Core and Xeonv2-branded processors. As a 22nm die shrink of its 32nm predecessor, Sandy Bridge, it is the first Intel product to feature FinFET transistors. Ivy Bridge is the tick in the company's tick–tock model. Ivy Bridge is manufactured solely as multi-core processors, with number of cores ranging from 2 to up to 15.

Ivy Bridge processors are backward compatible with the SandyBridge platform, but may require a firmware (BIOS) update depending on motherboard vendor. In 2011, Intel released the 7-series Panther Point chipsets with integrated USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 to complement IvyBridge.

Volume production of IvyBridge chips began in the third quarter of 2011. Quad-core and dual-core-mobile models launched on April 29, 2012 and May 31, 2012 respectively. Corei3 desktop processors, as well as the first 22nm Pentium, were announced and available the first week of September 2012.

Ivy Bridge is the last Intel platform on which Windows older than Windows 7 and Windows Server older than Windows Server 2008 R2 are officially supported by Microsoft. It is also the earliest Intel microarchitecture to officially support Windows 10 64-bit (NT 10.0).

Even after the release of the Haswell microarchitecture in June 2013, the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture continued to be produced with new models introduced up until March 2014, and were discontinued in June 2015 for desktop and mobile units and January 2016 for server and workstation units.

Overview

The IvyBridge CPU microarchitecture is a shrink from SandyBridge 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 22nm 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 32nm process.
• A new pseudorandom number generator and the RDRAND instruction, codenamed Bull Mountain.

Features

Changes over SandyBridge include:

CPU

• F16C (16-bit floating-point conversion instructions) extension
• 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

Translation lookaside buffer sizes Cache Page Size Name Level 4KB 2MB 1GB DTLB 1st 64 32 4 ITLB 1st 128 8 / logical core none STLB 2nd 512 none none

GPU

• The built-in GPU has 6 or 16 execution units (EUs), compared to SandyBridge'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

IO

• RAM support up to 2800MT/s in 200MHz increments
• DDR3L for mobile CPUs
• PCI Express 3.0 support (omitted on Corei3, Pentium, and ultra-low-voltage [ULV] processors)

Benchmark comparisons

Compared to its predecessor, Sandy Bridge:

• 3% to 6% increase in instructions per 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, and not up to par for a "premium" CPU, with some speculation that this is by design to encourage sales of prior processors. Further analyses caution that the processor can be damaged or void its warranty if home users attempt to remedy the matter. The TIM has much lower thermal conductivity, causing heat to trap on the die. Experiments with replacing this TIM with a higher-quality one or other heat removal methods showed a substantial temperature drop, and improvements to the increased voltages and overclocking sustainable by Ivy Bridge chips.

Intel claims that the smaller die of IvyBridge 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 IvyBridge-EP processor line announced in September 2013 has up to 12 cores and 30MB third level cache, with rumors of Ivy Bridge-EX up to 15 cores and an increased third level cache of up to 37.5MB, 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 HD4000 graphics (or HDP4000 for Xeon) are set in bold. Other processors feature HD2500 graphics or HD Graphics unless indicated by N/A.

Desktop processors

List of announced desktop processors, as follows:

1. Requires a compatible motherboard with 7 series chipsets.

Suffixes to denote:

• K–Unlocked (adjustable CPU multiplier up to 63 times)
• S–Performance-optimized lifestyle (low power with 65W TDP)
• T–Power-optimized lifestyle (ultra-low power consumption with 35–45W TDP)
• P–No on-die video chipset
• X–Extreme performance (adjustable CPU ratio with no ratio limit)

Server processors

Suffixes to denote:

• L–Low power
• C–Embedded applications
• W–Optimized for workstations

Mobile processors

Suffixes to denote:

• Y–Fanless Ultrabook: Dual-core extreme ultra-low power (TDP 13 W, SDP 7 W)
• U–Fanned Ultrabook: Dual-core ultra-low power (TDP 17 W)
• C–Communications
• M–Dual-core
• QM–Quad-core
• XM–Quad-core extreme performance (adjustable CPU ratio with no ratio limit)
• ME–Dual-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

• List of Intel CPU microarchitectures

Notes

Further reading

• Angelini, Chris (April 23, 2012). . Tom's Hardware.
• Intel (May 4, 2011). . YouTube.
• Kanter, David (April 22, 2012). . Real World Tech.
• Gavrichenkov, Ilya (September 19, 2012). . X-bit Labs. Archived from on September 23, 2012.
• Gavrichenkov, Ilya (September 25, 2012). . X-bit Labs. Archived from on September 26, 2012.
• (PDF). Super Micro Computer, Inc. January 2014.

External links

• Media related toIvy Bridge (microarchitecture)at Wikimedia Commons