Intel: New Sandy Bridge CPUs Enable Faster Graphics, Real-Time Processing, Power Saving

Today’s opening keynote at IDF was all about the benefits of processing power for your connected life today and in the future. At this morning’s event the company introduced and demoed its next generation of processors, codenamed Sandy Bridge. Devices based on Sandy Bridge, which will be marketed as “second-generation” Core Series CPUs, won’t ship until 2011, but we got a taste of what they’re capable of today.

Better Graphics

As a not-so-subtle slap to Nvidia and AMD, Intel showed how Sandy Bridge’s tighter integration of the graphics chip and CPU and how it makes gaming and media performance a lot stronger . In one demo, a developer came up on stage and showed Star Craft playing on two similar notebooks, one of which had an older CPU with discrete graphics and another of which had Sandy Bridge. Surprisingly, Sandy Bridge gave a similar frame rate while also capturing video of the game play at the same time.

At the end of the demo, the Intel developer who had been playing Star Craft, actually said that, with Sandy Bridge, you’ll save money by not paying for an “expensive” discrete graphics chip. However, there’s no word on whether it will be cheaper to buy a notebook with Sandy Bridge or one with an older CPU and discrete graphics.

Faster Video and Photo Processing

Is it any surprise that a faster CPU would transcode HD video and process high-res photos more quickly? One of these days you’ll just hit a button in your favorite editing software and it will finish processing your media before your finger leaves the mouse button. With Sandy Bridge, you’re one step closer. Intel showed two demos where they compared a current Core i7 notebook to a Sandy Bridge system. In the first demo, the Sandy Bridge system enhanced some photos more than twice as quickly as the original gen system. In the second, Sandy Bridge took mere moments to transcode 1080p video.

Real-Time Processing Enables Better Security, Drawing

Intel also showed how the enhanced processing power of Sandy Bridge enables new real-time applications. In one demo, they showed a security camera creating real-time invisible fences that could alert administrators if  someone crossed into a restricted area as an alarm went off.

Intel also showed a demo of a complex CAD program with 3D images that changes and redraws in real-time based on input from one or two Wimote-style controllers.

Intel also said that Sandy Bridge could lead to remote monitoring of body sensors for sick people, advanced gesture control, and other kinds of new applications.

Power Savings

Intel claims that, because of a smarter turbo mode and tighter integration between the CPU, memory controller, and integrated GPU, we’ll see even better battery life with Sandy Bridge than its predecessor. They didn’t make any specific claims about additional endurance, so we’ll wait and see what Sandy Bridge’s pull on battery life will be.