Intel recently announced that it had completed microcode updates for CPUs stretching back into the
Sandy Bridge era, and Microsoft has made those updates available via an expanded version of the same KB4090007 it's been using for this purpose to-date.
When combined with the
Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge platforms, the SX300 can achieve amazing performance on both desktop and notebook systems.
In addition to offering up to 20% more cores, memory bandwidth showed an increase of 25% percent from their
Sandy Bridge predecessor.
"But if you are using a PC as a media server or a cloud client, connecting to apps in the cloud, you don't need the processing power of an advanced
Sandy Bridge or Haswell processor.
The confusion doubles up when you realize that the same series of Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 have been retained, as with
Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge.
The company also started shipping new Core i3 and i5 Ivy Bridge processors for desktops, and dual-core
Sandy Bridge Celeron processors for low-power laptops.
3360, Dell's new business laptop gets the Ivy Bridge upgrade, making it more energy efficient and, despite being an ultra-low-voltage chip, keeps pace with standard
Sandy Bridge chips.
The brains of the NavNet TZtouch system are powered by Intel
Sandy Bridge Dual-Core processors.
Intel broadened its family of processors for the Xeon line with the addition of three new product suites for the
Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge architectures designed to address the increasing diversity of business workloads.
Manufactured with the IBM/GlobalFoundries 45nm process, Microsoft's new SoC is actually the first production desktop-class processor to combine a CPU, GPU, memory, and I/O logic onto a single piece of silicon, and is in homes ahead of AMD's Fusion and Intel's
Sandy Bridge processors.