Difference Sandy-Bridge to Ivy-Bridge

[applewins]

Hi

I wonder, where the differences between the SB and IB-processor from intel are. The IB are likely coming out early 2012, right? So Apple is going to replace SB with IB then?

I heard that IB is based on a new 22nm technology.

Can you please tell me something about the Speed-improvement compared with SB? Is the step from the processors now to SB bigger, than the step from SB to IB? Where are the benefits (maybe to be used for smaller products?).


Do you recommend waiting for the Ivy-Bridge-processor-refresh of the iMacs next year instead of buying a new iMac now (in addition I heard rumors, that the next iMac-refresh is going to be a major-update).

We changed from Windows on Mac this year and we're blown away, Macs work just perfect, to be honest, the new iMac is a beast !!! Now my parents are thinking about buying a Mac too.
(I allready told them that a Mac is in every case a good choice )

Thanks for your answers.

 

[Hellhammer]

Smaller SOI takes less space and draws less power at the same performance. That means more cores and/or clock speed can be added while keeping the same dimensions and TDP. No reason to keep waiting though, iMacs were just updated so buy now.

 

[iindigo]

Doesn't smaller also = less heat? That's always great for portables. Doesn't hurt on iMacs either.

 

[Hellhammer]

Doesn't smaller also = less heat? That's always great for portables. Doesn't hurt on iMacs either.

Not necessarily. Like I said, if the performance stays the same, then yes, but usually Intel tries to improve the performance by ~20% so the TDPs are pretty much constant (you can't really get a nice performance boost while reducing the power draw). However, recent news suggest that Intel will work on reducing the TDPs in order to make laptops smaller, although that is probably too early to happen with IB (at least desktop chips will have the same TDPs).