Sandy Bridge

Sandy Bridge is the codename for the microarchitecture used in the "second generation" of the Intel Core processors (Core i7, i5, i3). The Sandy Bridge microarchitecture is the successor to Nehalem microarchitecture. Intel demonstrated a Sandy Bridge processor in 2009, and released first products based on the architecture in January 2011 under the Core brand.
Sandy Bridge is manufactured in the 32 nanometer process and has a soldered contact with the die and IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader), while Intel's subsequent generation "Ivy Bridge" (announced 2011) uses a 22 nanometer die shrink and a TIM (Thermal Interface Material) between the die and the IHS. This is known as the tick–tock model.
Technology.
Intel demonstrated a Sandy Bridge processor with A1 stepping at 2 GHz during the Intel Developer Forum in September 2009.
Upgraded features from Nehalem include:
Models and steppings.
All Sandy Bridge processors with one, two, or four cores report the same CPUID model 0206A7h and are closely related. The stepping number cannot be seen from the CPUID but only from the PCI configuration space. The later Sandy Bridge-E processors with up to eight cores and no graphics are using CPUIDs 0206D6h and 0206D7h. Ivy Bridge CPUs all have CPUID 0306A9h to date, and are built in four different configurations differing in the number of cores, L3 cache and GPU execution units:
List of Sandy Bridge processors.
1Processors featuring Intel's HD 3000 graphics are set in bold. Other processors feature HD 2000 graphics, HD graphics (Pentium and Celeron models) or no graphics core (Graphics Clock rate indicated by N/A).
Desktop platform.
Suffixes to denote:
NOTE: 3970X, 3960X, 3930K, and 3820 are actually of Sandy Bridge-E edition.
Mobile platform.
Suffixes to denote:
Cougar Point chipset flaw.
On 31 January 2011, Intel issued a recall on all 67-series motherboards due to a flaw in the Cougar Point Chipset. A hardware problem exists, in which the chipset's SATA II ports may fail over time, causing failure of connection to SATA devices, though data is not at risk. Intel claims that this problem will affect only 5% of users over 3 years; however, heavier I/O workloads can exacerbate the problem.
Intel stopped production of flawed B2 stepping chipsets and began producing B3 stepping chipsets with the silicon fix. Shipping of these new chipsets started on 14 February 2011 and Intel estimated full recovery volume in April 2011. Motherboard manufacturers (such as ASUS and Gigabyte Technology) and computer manufacturers (such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard) stopped selling products that involved the flawed chipset and offered support for affected customers. Options ranged from swapping for B3 motherboards to product refunds.
Sandy Bridge processor sales were temporarily on hold, as one cannot use the CPU without a motherboard. However, processor release dates were not affected. After two weeks, Intel continued shipping some chipsets, but manufacturers had to agree to a set of terms that will prevent customers from encountering the bug.
Limitations.
Overclocking.
With Sandy Bridge, Intel has tied the speed of every bus (USB, SATA, PCI, PCI-E, CPU cores, Uncore, memory etc.) to a single internal clock generator issuing the basic Base Clock (BClk). With CPUs being multiplier locked, the only way to overclock is to increase the BClk, which can be raised by only 5–7% without other hardware components failing. As a work around, Intel made available K/X-series processors, which feature unlocked multipliers; with a multiplier cap of 57 for Sandy Bridge. For the Sandy Bridge-E platform, there is alternative method known as the BClk ratio overclock.
During IDF (Intel Developer Forum) 2010, Intel demonstrated an unknown Sandy Bridge CPU running stably overclocked at 4.9 GHz on air cooling.
Chipset.
Non-K edition CPUs can overclock up to four bins from its turbo multiplier. Refer here for chipset support.
vPro remote-control.
Sandy and Ivy Bridge processors with vPro capability have security features that can remotely disable a PC or erase information from hard drives. This can be useful in the case of a lost or stolen PC. The commands can be received through 3G signals, Ethernet, or Internet connections. AES encryption acceleration will be available, which can be useful for video conferencing and VoIP applications.
Intel Insider.
Sandy and Ivy Bridge processors contain a DRM technology that some video streaming web sites rely on to restrict use of their content. Such web sites offer 1080p streaming to users with such CPUs and downgrade the quality for other users.
Software development kit.
With the introduction of the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, Intel also introduced the Intel Data Plane Development Kit (Intel DPDK) to help developers of communications applications take advantage of the platform in packet processing applications, and network processors.
Roadmap.
Intel demonstrated the Haswell architecture in September 2011, released in 2013 as the successor to Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge with general availability in 2014.
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.