Intel's New Ivy Bridge Chips 'Groundbreaking' with Their Higher Speed, Lower Energy Use

Ivy Bridge chips are being introduced this week by Intel (News - Alert) and the likely ground-breaking new technology is faster and uses less energy than previous offerings.

Intel is expecting the Ivy Bridge chips to be popular, with CEO Paul Otellini (News - Alert) predicting them to be included in about half of Intel processor shipments by this coming fall,  The Associated Press reported. They will be offered in time for back to school sales, The AP added. The chips will be found first in desktops and then later laptops.

In its review of Ivy Bridge, Mashable said the chips feature smaller transistors. They offer a space of 22-nanometers between the transistors – an industry first, Mashable added. More transistors can be installed because of the increased room, according to The AP.

The chips also employ something called Tri-Gate chip design. Because Tri-Gate has “depth” to it, it uses less voltage, Mashable explained. The Tri-Gate design has led the chips to be described as “3-D,” news reports said.

Also, with an integrated graphics processing unit, they will be helpful in video applications such as editing ultra-high-resolution 4K or compressing videos, Mashable said.

The new technology is considered a major achievement for the company and may lead to increased computer sales.

“The momentum around the system design is pretty astonishing,” Kirk Skaugen, Intel's PC business chief, told the BBC. “There are more than 300 mobile products in development and more than 270 different desktops, many of which are all-in-one designs.”

“We'll be delivering about 20 percent more processor performance using 20 percent less average power,” Skaugen added in the BBC report. “This is Intel's fastest ramp ever… There will be 50 percent more supply than we had early in the product cycle of our last generation, Sandy Bridge, a year ago. And we're still constrained based on the amount of demand we're seeing in the marketplace.”

Anticipating the increased demand, Intel constructed three factories to make Ivy Bridge, according to the BBC. A fourth dedicated plant will be opened by the end of 2012.

To get an idea of how important the new chips are, Romit Shah, who works at Nomura Securities, claimed they put “Intel two to three years ahead of the competition,” according to The AP.

In fact, Otellini told Barrons.com that the Ivy Bridge chips – along with Microsoft's (News - Alert) introduction of Windows 8 during 2012 – will lead to a “new generation of ‘hybrids’ that will combine the attributes of tablets, ultrabook laptops and phones.”

“That could help offset waning growth in traditional personal computers,” Barrons.com reported.

Ivy Bridge is the first third-generation core processors for Intel, TMCnet said.