text: January 9, 2011; 8 years ago (January 9, 2011)
  504M to 2.27B 32nm
  Sandy Bridge is the codename for the microarchitecture used in the "second generation" of the Intel Core processors (Core i7, i5, i3) - the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture is the successor to Nehalem microarchitecture. Intel demonstrated a Sandy Bridge processor in 2009, and released first products based on the architecture in January 2011 under the Core brand.[1][2]
  Sandy Bridge is manufactured in the 32 nanometer process, while Intel's subsequent generation Ivy Bridge (announced 2011) uses a 22 nanometer die shrink. This was known as the tick–tock model.[3]
  A Core i7 2600 Sandy Bridge CPU at 3.4 GHz with 1333 MHz DDR3 memory reaches 83 GFLOPS performance in the Whetstone benchmark and 118,000 MIPS in the Dhrystone benchmark.[4]
  Intel demonstrated a Sandy Bridge processor with A1 stepping at 2 GHz during the Intel Developer Forum in September 2009.[5]
  Intel Turbo Boost 2.0[6][7][8]
  32 KB data + 32 KB instruction L1 cache (4 clocks) and 256 KB L2 cache (11 clocks) per core[9]
  Improved 3 integer ALU, 2 vector ALU and 2 AGU per core.[10][11]
  Decoded micro-operation cache (uop cache)[12] and enlarged, optimized branch predictor
  Sandy Bridge retains the four branch predictors found in Nehalem: the branch target buffer (BTB), indirect branch target array, loop detector and renamed return stack buffer (RSB). Sandy Bridge has a single BTB that holds twice as many branch targets as the L1 and L2 BTBs in Nehalem.[13]
  Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) 256-bit instruction set with wider vectors, new extensible syntax and rich functionality.[14]
  A 14- to 19-stage instruction pipeline, depending on the micro-operation cache hit or miss[15]
  Translation lookaside buffer sizes[16][17]
  All translation lookaside buffers (TLBs) are 4-way associative.[18]
  All Sandy Bridge processors with one, two, or four cores report the same CPUID model 0206A7h[19] and are closely related. The stepping number can not be seen from the CPUID but only from the PCI configuration space. The later Sandy Bridge-E processors with up to eight cores and no graphics are using CPUIDs 0206D6h and 0206D7h.[20] Ivy Bridge CPUs all have CPUID 0306A9h to date, and are built in four different configurations differing in the number of cores, L3 cache and GPU execution units.
  The average performance increase, according to IXBT Labs and Semi Accurate as well as many other benchmarking sites, at clock to clock is 11.3% compared to the Nehalem generation, which includes Bloomfield, Clarkdale, and Lynnfield processors.[21]
  PCIe 2.0[25] Up to quad
  DDR3-1600[26]
  3820 4 (8) 3.6 GHz 10 MB 2012-02-13[27] $294
  BGA-1224 (in embedded products)[28]
  BGA-1023 (in embedded products)[28]
  B820[29] 1.7 GHz 2012-07-29
  B815[30] 1.6 GHz 2012-01
  B720[31] 1.7 GHz 2012-01
  On 31 January 2011, Intel issued a recall on all 67-series motherboards due to a flaw in the Cougar Point Chipset.[32] A hardware problem, in which the chipset's SATA II ports may fail over time, cause failure of connection to SATA devices, though data is not at risk.[33] Intel claims that this problem will affect only 5% of users over 3 years, however, heavier I/O workloads can exacerbate the problem.
  Intel stopped production of flawed B2 stepping chipsets and began producing B3 stepping chipsets with the silicon fix. Shipping of these new chipsets started on 14 February 2011 and Intel estimated full recovery volume in April 2011.[34] Motherboard manufacturers (such as ASUS and Gigabyte Technology) and computer manufacturers (such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard) stopped selling products that involved the flawed chipset and offered support for affected customers. Options ranged from swapping for B3 motherboards to product refunds.[35][36]
  Sandy Bridge processor sales were temporarily on hold, as one cannot use the CPU without a motherboard. However, processor release dates were not affected.[37] After two weeks, Intel continued shipping some chipsets, but manufacturers had to agree to a set of terms that will prevent customers from encountering the bug.[38]
  With Sandy Bridge, Intel has tied the speed of every bus (USB, SATA, PCI, PCI-E, CPU cores, Uncore, memory etc.) to a single internal clock generator issuing the basic 100 MHz Base Clock (BClk).[39] With CPUs being multiplier locked, the only way to overclock is to increase the BClk, which can be raised by only 5–7% without other hardware components failing. As a work around, Intel made available K/X-series processors, which feature unlocked multipliers; with a multiplier cap of 57 for Sandy Bridge.[40] For the Sandy Bridge E platform, there is alternative method known as the BClk ratio overclock.[41]
  During IDF (Intel Developer Forum) 2010, Intel demonstrated an unknown Sandy Bridge CPU running stably overclocked at 4.9 GHz on air cooling.[42][43]
  Sandy and Ivy Bridge processors with vPro capability have security features that can remotely disable a PC or erase information from hard drives. This can be useful in the case of a lost or stolen PC. The commands can be received through 3G signals, Ethernet, or Internet connections. AES encryption acceleration will be available, which can be useful for video conferencing and VoIP applications.[44][45]
  Sandy and Ivy Bridge processors contain a DRM technology that some video streaming web sites rely on to restrict use of their content. Such web sites offer 1080p streaming to users with such CPUs and downgrade the quality for other users.[46]
  With the introduction of the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, Intel also introduced the Intel Data Plane Development Kit (Intel DPDK) to help developers of communications applications take advantage of the platform in packet processing applications, and network processors.[47]
  Intel demonstrated the Haswell architecture in September 2011, released in 2013 as the successor to Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge.[48]
  ^ "The Man Behind 'Sandy Bridge'". December 28, 2010. Archived from the original on December 2, 2011. Retrieved November 11, 2011.