Sandy Bridge has only been launched officially this month, but news of the next “tick” on Intel’s roadmap has already surfaced. Yes, we’re talking about Ivy Bridge. Ivy Bridge will be using 22nm fabrication process and will be backward compatible to socket 1155. Though, an important note here is that there’s no mention of support for this processor from Cougar point Chipset of Sandy Bridge, so your brand new socket 1155 motherboard with P67 chipset might not play well with the new Ivy Bridge processor when it’s launched next year.

The new platform is said to be officially supporting USB 3.0, though I won’t be surprised if Intel totally ditched this idea and go for Light Peak, since it’s very much ready for commercial usage and is faster than USB 3.0. Ivy Bridge will also have DirectX 11 ready by then, and its Maho Bay graphic platform will even support up to three independent displays all thanks to its FDI support (Flexible Display Interface).

Ivy Bridge will be a much optimized Sandy Bridge, and Intel also promised improved energy efficiency. Ivy Bridge is expected to be ready and into production by Q4 of 2011, and products of Ivy Bridge platform will be available by Q1 of 2012, if Intel doesn’t face any delay.