Although Intel still hasn't officially presented their new microarchitecture, as part of the successful Tick-Tock strategy, for those who just can't wait for the beginning of next year, we've decided to peek through the thick curtains obscuring Sandy Bridge. A good deal of information concerning the aforementioned microarchitecture is already readily available online, so we thought it might be a good idea to clarify what you should expect of it.

After the successful conquest of the 32 nm production process and presenting CPUs based on it (Clarkdale, Arrandale), it was time for Nehalem to slowly abdicate in favour of Sandy Bridge. The new microarchitecture, slated for presentation in the beginning of January (targeting the CES fair in Las Vegas) brings a plethora of new features along with it. Let's start from the beginning.

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The new CPUs will coexist with both the previous Core 2010 generation and the even older Core 2 Duo models, which seem to remain a very popular solution. In other words, the new models will slowly replace the old Core setup, with the strongest Sandy Bridge models being available no sooner than the second half of 2011 at the earliest. The new CPUs will also require new sockets (LGA1155 – my my, what a surprise), while the strongest models, soon to be reinforced with Core i7 990X, will have to be placed in “server” sockets, LGA1356, along with the triple-channel memory controller.

The new chipsets with controller logic will contain support for 6 Gbps SATA, while the destiny of USB 3.0 remains unclear. Since we've already had the chance to see certain motherboard models with latest-gen chipsets, those who had USB 3.0 support could offer it owing to NEC's separate controller. The new chipset generations will, just like before, be split into categories, which means that we'll have P67, H67, H61, Q67, and maybe even X68 as a replacement for X58.