>Thanks to the new microarchitecture, the graphics processor is on the same chip as the central processor and has direct access to L3 cache.
I've been waiting for this kind of thing for years. Up until the iPad, I never would've guessed it'd be Apple that beat everyone out the door. That kind of proximity has the potential to change how we use GPUs, because moving data back and forth can be so much faster.
Innovations in Sandy Bridge are due to Intel, not Apple. All PC vendors use the same Intel processors. CPU/GPU "fusion" sounds like a great idea until you realize that it necessarily involves a weak GPU, which negates any benefit of the close coupling.
I've been waiting for this kind of thing for years. Up until the iPad, I never would've guessed it'd be Apple that beat everyone out the door. That kind of proximity has the potential to change how we use GPUs, because moving data back and forth can be so much faster.