Ask all your 2nd generation Intel® Core Questions here for our webcast on Jan 5, 2011

[Sponsored Post]

ASUS and Intel are putting together a webcast that they've invited Anand Shimpi to attend. The topic of discussion? 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor. The webcast will air after Intel's official announcement of the 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor at 9AM PST on January 5, 2011 at CES.

The discussion will be a conversation between myself, Gary Key (former AT Motherboard Editor, current ASUS Technical Marketing Manager), and Michael Lavacot, an Intel Consumer Field Application Engineer.

If you have any questions you'd like to see Anand answer on air or that you'd like Anand to grill ASUS and Intel on, post them below and Anand will do his best to get them addressed.

Of course we will also have our full review of the 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor around the same time.

 

[Sp12]

Is EFI being implemented? What were some of the factors in your decision to include/not include EFI with Sandy Bridge?

If yes: How can vendors, such as Asus, differentiate themselves via an EFI system, and what are the big benefits it brings to customers?

If no: Why not, and when do you think we'll see EFI implemented in an Intel ecosystem?

 

[somethingsketchy]

What kind of performance increase can an user expect for AES encryption with Sandy Bridge over Nehalem?

What kind of performance increase can an user expect for virtualization with Sandy Bridge-EX over Westmere-EP/Gulftown?

 

[NurEinTier]

Will you be able to overclock a k-model on a h67 chipset.
If so will you still be able to use the igp.

Will there be a z68 chipset.
If so how will it differ from the other chipsets.

How far will you be able to overclock on a stock cooler.

 

[OCGuy]

I think detailed overclocking info is on everyone's mind.

 

[Cogman]

How are future CPUs looking? What can we expect after Sandy bridge?

Details on new instruction performance would be nice. IE how does a FMA instruction compare to discrete add and multiply operations?

What notable changes to the architecture were there? Are we going to see even better HT performance? Better IMC? etc.

EFI and USB 3.0 information would be interesting as well. Should we expect it to be available?

What sort of TDP should we expect from both the motherboard and the CPU?

Pricing info would be nice.

Maybe not so relevant to sandy bridge, but is there any news on different memory techs such as ZRAM, PRAM, MRAM, etc?

 

[gevorg]

Can the i5-2390T (35W TDP) chip be safely used with passive cooling? (i.e. no CPU fan, just the heatsink). If not, will any of the Ivy Bridge chips do this?

 

[Surutcra]

I don't buy into new platforms very often, I own 3 lga 775 chips for example. In the coming month I'm going to invest in the lga1155 platform.

What can lga1155 adopters expect from the platform in terms of support for future processor releases? Is lga1155 going to be just the "quadcore" platform for 2011/2012?

 

[Sp12]

I don't buy into new platforms very often, I own 3 lga 775 chips for example. In the coming month I'm going to invest in the lga1155 platform.

What can lga1155 adopters expect from the platform in terms of support for future processor releases? Is lga1155 going to be just the "quadcore" platform for 2011/2012?

I think that's been covered by an Ivy Bridge interview somewhere (check the wiki). 1155 is supposed to get 6-8 core Ivy Bridge chips with DX11 integrated graphics in 2012, with 32nm socket 2011 chips coming Q3 and 22nm chips coming either Q3 or Q4 2012.

Edit: It's definitely on the wiki and well-sourced.

 

[Rebel44]

When will Sandy Bridge CPUs for socket 2011 be released?

Any ETA for socket 2011 CPUs based on 22nm technology?

 

[Fjodor2001]

Will Sandy Bridge support proper 23.976 Hz video output? The Clarkdale chips couldn't handle this properly and used 24.000 Hz output instead.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Is there any meaning behind the names of Sandy and Ivy Bridge? Are they supposed to be names of woman, or is it literally sand & ivy?

 

[Fjodor2001]

Approximately what idle power consumption can be expected from the Core i5-2500, 2500S and 2500T, respectively?

 

[bryanW1995]

Is there any meaning behind the names of Sandy and Ivy Bridge? Are they supposed to be names of woman, or is it literally sand & ivy?

http://newsroom.intel.com/community...ndy-bridge-breaks-the-mold-for-chip-codenames

 

[Patrick Wolf]

http://newsroom.intel.com/community...ndy-bridge-breaks-the-mold-for-chip-codenames

Doesn't answer my question. It explains "Bridge" and Haswell. Sandy and Ivy are still a mystery.

 

[EdgeOfDetroit]

What impact will the hyperthreading quad-cores have over the non-hyperthreading quad-cores that isn't attributable to the slightly higher clock speed and cache? I.e. the 2600s vs the 2500, 2400, and 2300s? To help us determine if it is worth the $100 premium....

 

[firewolfsm]

What is the impact of the ringbus on performance for a quad core? For a 16 core processor? And how far to they expect it to scale?

 

[busmaster11]

What is the likely sweet spot in terms of power draw vs performance for overclocking the 2500k and 2600k?

 

[busmaster11]

Will an update be provided down the road to enable quicksync without requiring IGP use?

 

[Spikesoldier]

Will sandy bridge have a large impact in the CULV market segment succeeding the dated penryn and current arrandale CULV platforms?

Do you see in the future a sandy bridge variant powering ever shrinking consumer electronics such as a smartphone or smart-tablet?

Will sandy bridge be the springboard into context-aware computing?

Can sandy bridge be the atom killer?

edit:

What kind of TDP are we looking at for sandy bridge CULV chips?

 

[mclaren777]

I have a perfect question for this webcast: why is Quick Sync being limited to H67 motherboards?

Up until an hour ago I was dead-set on buying an ASUS P8P67 Deluxe for Sandy Bridge but now I've completely abandoned that idea because Quick Sync is really important to me. So perhaps the guys at Intel/ASUS can explain why such a compelling feature is being withheld from eager consumers.

More info/ranting here

 

[mclaren777]

Furthermore, could you please ask what the future looks like for software support of Quick Sync? Is Intel actively working with companies to include it in video editing programs like Premiere, Vegas, and Final Cut?

Quick Sync is arguably the single most impressive thing about Sandy Bridge and I hope Intel capitalizes on its advantage in the market by working with software developers and unlocking the hardware for all motherboard configurations. Anything less would be a massive business mistake given their current lead over AMD/GPUs.

 

[jimhsu]

I have a perfect question for this webcast: why is Quick Sync being limited to H67 motherboards?

Up until an hour ago I was dead-set on buying an ASUS P8P67 Deluxe for Sandy Bridge but now I've completely abandoned that idea because Quick Sync is really important to me. So perhaps the guys at Intel/ASUS can explain why such a compelling feature is being withheld from eager consumers.

More info/ranting here

Seconded, even though I don't do much transcoding. When has Intel heavily promoted a feature (it's the single biggest thing that non-tech magazines like BusinessWeek are following) but withheld that feature completely from one of their primary ENTHUSIAST platforms (P67) - the only people who would CARE about such a feature? I can overlook the whole business about HD 3000 only being on K model CPUs (they want more money after all), but to deliberately cripple their current high-end platform (and no H67 is not an alternative) is a flat out stupid decision, both technically and economically.

 

[busmaster11]

Seconded, even though I don't do much transcoding. When has Intel heavily promoted a feature (it's the single biggest thing that non-tech magazines like BusinessWeek are following) but withheld that feature completely from one of their primary ENTHUSIAST platforms (P67) - the only people who would CARE about such a feature? I can overlook the whole business about HD 3000 only being on K model CPUs (they want more money after all), but to deliberately cripple their current high-end platform (and no H67 is not an alternative) is a flat out stupid decision, both technically and economically.

The answer to that is that you need to output via the IGP to at least a secondary display in order to use quicksync, and there's no display out hardware on a P67. Which leads to the better question of whether intel will release a driver or something to enable the hardware without requiring video output through it.

 

[mclaren777]

The answer to that is that you need to output via the IGP to at least a secondary display in order to use quicksync, and there's no display out hardware on a P67. Which leads to the better question of whether intel will release a driver or something to enable the hardware without requiring video output through it.

I know this probably isn't the best thread to discuss such matters (perhaps a mod can move our discussion to this thread) but your theory seems a little odd. Why would QS only be available on a platform where the integrated GPU is already under load (H67), yet not be available on a platform where the integrated GPU is entirely idle (P67)? It seems totally backwards.