Intel has confirmed that production of processors featuring its next-gen Hi-K 32 nanometer (nm) “Sandy Bridge” architecture will kick off in late 2010.
The processors are expected to be the first to support the company’s Advanced Vector Extension (AVX) instruction set.
According to Intel executive VP David (Dadi) Perlmutter, AVX accelerates the trends toward floating point intensive computation in applications such as image, video, and audio processing, as well as engineering apps, including 3D modeling/analysis, scientific simulation and financial analytics.
“Sandy Bridge” is also slated to continue support for Intel’s AES New Instruction set (AES-NI), which includes seven software instructions to accelerate data encryption and decryption.
Finally, “Sandy Bridge” will feature Intel’s sixth-generation graphics core which is expected to significantly accelerate floating points, as well as video and processor intensive software.
