Sandy bridge die versions ????

[hannibal2469]

hi guys just have a small question
just take a look at the link
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500k,2833-2.html
it says there are three sandy bridge dies quad core, dualcore with gt1 and dual core with gt2
how can there be a quad core die with no graphics, there are quad core sandy bridge processors with integrated gpus

 

[kajabla]

That's strange. The SB quadcores all definitely have graphics.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Sandy Bridge is a preproduction code name for the current architecture that we are using on our processors because it says Sandy Bridge doesn’t mean that it must be a desktop or laptop processor. Our Intel® Xeon® E3-1200’s come with and without graphics. http://ark.intel.com/products/family/59137/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-Family/server

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[hannibal2469]

????? i dont understand
1.could you tell me how many different kinds of dies you have for the processors produced with the current architecture
2. also the core i3 2100 is that a dual core die or a quad core die with the the 2 cores disabled

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The only thing that I can do is guess at the number of dies (different platters) that we are currently making because I just don’t deal in the manufacturing end. So I would guess that we have 6 or 7 dies including future products. Would it be possible to get an Intel® Core™ i3-2100 that was a quad core with 2 cores disabled? I don’t believe so.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[hannibal2469]

could you explain the dies mentioned in the link in my first post,
it talks about 3 dies, could you elaborate a bit
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500k,2833-2.html

 

[HEXiT]

i think the top most 1 is the as yet unreleased 2011 core i dont think the socket 2011 has an on chip gpu...

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

It's obvious that they did the chart wrong, or they assumed (correctly) that all consumer quad-cores have integrated graphics. Later in the article they have a list of all of the CPUs that launched, and all of them have integrated graphics. The fact that nobody caught the error is simple excitement of the time.

There probably is only one die for all quad-core SNBs. The lesser models simply have HT, some cache and part of the iGPU disabled. There probably are two die types for the dual-core SNBs -- it might be more efficient that way or something. Even if the dual-cores were really quad-cores with two disabled, Intel would never allow them to be enabled.

Why the question about this after so long anyway?

HeXiT:
That's definitely not the case. The quad-core SNB-E die is far larger than that due to quad-channel memory controller and 10MB of cache.

 

[MU_Engineer]

hi guys just have a small question
just take a look at the link
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500k,2833-2.html
it says there are three sandy bridge dies quad core, dualcore with gt1 and dual core with gt2
how can there be a quad core die with no graphics, there are quad core sandy bridge processors with integrated gpus

As best as I can tell, there are possibly three different dies out there.

- The first die is the quad-core die with 8 MB L3 and an IGP- these are D2 stepping. The IGP can be enabled/disabled, the L3 can be cut down, and possibly cores can be turned off to make a dual-core unit.
- The second die is a dual-core unit with 4 MB of L3 cache and an IGP. This is the J1-stepping unit.
- The last die is a dual-core unit with 2 MB of L3 cache and an IGP, used for the Pentium Dual Core and Celeron units. This has the stepping Q0.

I might be wrong, but this makes sense- one quad-core die, one larger-cache dual-core die, and one smaller-cache dual-core die for the real cheapie parts.

 

[hannibal2469]

@leapsfromshadows

hahah the doubt just popped into my head so i started searching for an answer no particular reason
BTW are u sure or are u making a guess could u cite your source

@MU_engineer
thnks but are u sure or are u making a guess

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

Nope, I'm not sure. Frankly, I don't care one way or the other. I was mildly curious as to why you were asking the question, but that's about it.

 

[MU_Engineer]

@MU_engineer
thnks but are u sure or are u making a guess

Making a guess. There isn't a ton of information about die sizes or transistor counts yet, so I can't say for sure.