Intel Iris and Intel Iris Pro have just been announced as the new brands for the top two tiers of Intel’s 4th-gen Core processor (Haswell) graphics. Iris will appear in Ultrabooks but, surprisingly, only on a 28W TDP processor. It indicates that there are some higher-level processing options coming to Ultrabooks. Other 4th-gen Core processors for Ultrabooks get HD 5000 graphics.

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Haswell reference design shown at GDC 2013

At GDC 2013, Intel announced that their next-gen Haswell graphics will support a new bit of tech called PixelSync as well as DirectX 11.1. PixelSync on Hawell graphics enables two rendering techniques called ASVM and AOIT which can cost a standard GPU up to 80% of it’s performance but runs smoothly with Haswell’s integrated graphics. The developers behind Grid 2 are using Haswell’s new tech to bring graphically rich games to the masses.

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North Cape is the Haswell hybrid Ultrabook reference design that was brought out as the demo at CES in Jan. This evening in Hannover, Intel have allowed us to have a few minutes hands-on with it at CeBIT. Naturally this is a reference design and not a final product but from the few minutes we had we can draw at least a few conclusions. I also had a chance to speak to a senior marketing representative from Intel about Connected Standby.

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One of the aims of attending the Intel Developer Forum last week for me was to find out as much as possible about 2013, Haswell and what it means for Ultrabooks. I’m sure there’s more detail to come soon (and possibly, a new roadmap) but I came away with a lot of useful information that I’ve summarized below. What is clear is that Haswell is more about mobility than any other Core CPU to date. It will extend down into tablet territory enabling detachable screens and new form factors. There will be a huge focus on active standby; the claimed 20x lower idle power should equate to multi-day ‘active’ idle. A ‘dual slice’ GPU will feature in Ultrabooks

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HD 3000 in Intel’s second generation Core ‘Sandy Bridge’ processor was a pretty big step forward for integrated graphics — it adds significant gaming capabilities to thin, light, and efficient Ultrabooks, without the need for discrete graphics. HD 4000, introduced with the third and current-gen Core ‘Ivy Bridge’ processor took things one step further by doubling the performance over Sandy Bridge. With the fourth and next-gen Core ‘Haswell’ processor, slated to launch in Ultrabooks and other systems in 2013, Intel is once again doubling performance over the previous generation.

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