Intel's Sandy Bridge Architecture Exposed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 14, 2010 4:10 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Sandy Bridge
Sandy Bridge Media Engine
Sitting alongside the GPU is Sandy Bridge’s Media processor. Media processing in SNB is composed of two major components: video decode, and video encode.
The hardware accelerated decode engine is improved from the current generation: the entire video pipeline is now decoded via fixed function units. This is contrast to Intel’s current design that uses the EU array for some video decode stages. As a result, Intel claims that SNB processor power is cut in half for HD video playback.
The video encode engine is a brand new addition to Sandy Bridge. Intel is being light on the details of the encoder but we saw a demo where Intel took a ~3 minute 1080p 30Mbps source video and transcoded it to a 640 x 360 iPhone video format. The total process took 14 seconds and completed at a rate of roughly 400 frames per second.
Given Intel’s close relationship with many software vendors who work on video transcoding, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw decent support for SNB’s video encoding engine at launch. At 400 fps we’re well in the realm of high end GPU encoding performance, despite being run on a 3mm^2 piece of the Sandy Bridge die.
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yuhong - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
There is no VEX.256 for 256-bit integer ops, but there is a VEX.128 prefix that zeros the upper part of YMM registers to reduce the delays..NaN42 - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
Well, I found a summary of the prefixes. Interestingly there are some exception, like I guessed, e.g. a VEX.128 prefix does not exist for conversion of packed floating points<->packed integers and for CRC32c + POPCNT.CSMR - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
Anand:The best info available on an exciting platform, good job.
I wonder if for the next article you could test DirectX / OpenGL compatibility? Intel advertises compliance for a lot of its products, but in reality the support is partial, and some applications that use DirectX / OpenGL entirely correctly are not supported by Intel graphics, including the current HD graphics.
I've found this with fastpictureviewer (DirectX, I think 9) and Photoshop CS5 (OpenGL 2)
This is quite shocking. Given that Intel is doing this currently, it would be great if reviewers could prod it into action, but unfortunately they tend to place speed first, correctness second or nowhere.
marass31 - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Hi CSMR,Could you please write more details about problems with DX and OGL on Intel HD graphics( including gfx driver version, system config ...). You mentioned about two applications: Fastpictureviewer and PSCS5, so could you please write some steps to reproduce to each of them - THX a lot.
ssj4Gogeta - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
What's the point of extreme editions if we're going to have affordable K SKUs?Or will socket 2011 not have any K SKUs? I'm guessing they'll leave the BCLCK unlocked on the 2011, and only have normal and extreme processors (no K processors). Or maybe extreme editions will just have more cores like 980X?
DanNeely - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
The extreme editions have always been for people who buy retail or who're playing with LN2 and need the most insanely binned part available. They've never been a mainstream OCer part.MonkeyPaw - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
I have a bad feeling about the "k" chips and the future of overclocking. Sure, intel gave us turbo mode, but that almost seems like appeasement before the last shoe drops. First, limited turbo with good overclockng, then better turbo and less overclocking, and now it's sounding like slightly better turbo and even less overclocking. It looks like we are moving to intel-controlled overclocking. There's virtually no value left for the enthusiast--a user that is already just a small part of the market. Intel just decided what the enthusiast needs, but I don't think they get what those users actually want.I just don't buy that these limits are to prevent fraud. Mom and Pop stores are virtually all gone now, and I'd hate to think what Intel would do to a Dell or HP if they got caught overclocking desktops.
I guess this leaves another door open for AMD. Sad, cause SnB looks like a great design.
This Guy - Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - link
Hopefully Intel will allow the 'energy budget' to be increased when an extreme edition processer detects less thermal resistance (i.e. a bloody big heat sink). This would allow an EE CPU to either run with a higher multiplier or run at it's turbo frequency longer. (I'ld like this feature on all CPU's)This would make EE CPU's interesting if K CPU's catch up in terms of cores.
Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
What are the prospects for using Intel's transcoder to convert DVDs to 700MB avi files? Either DivX, Xvid, or H.264? Or anything else better than MPEG-2?Dfere - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
Since this seems to be, overall, a refinement, and not so much an improvement with new capabilities, and Anand's comments about the scalability of GPU related enhancements, that Intel is taking a two step approach towards CPU releases, in addition to its fab strategies? E.G, we see a new CPU, then it gets shrunk, then it gets improved (like this), then it gets bells and whistles (like a GPU etc), then we start over again with a really new architecture.....