"Tick-Tock" is a model, of Jones Farm 5 (Hillsboro, Oregon) and adopted by chip manufacturer Intel Corporation

Intel Corporation

Intel Corporation is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most...

 since 2007 to follow every microarchitectural change with shrinking of the process technology. Every "tick" is a shrinking

Die shrink

The term "die shrink" refers to a simple semiconductor scaling of semiconductor devices, mainly transistors. The act of shrinking a die is to create a somewhat identical circuitry using a more advanced fabrication process, usually involving an advance of lithographic node...

 of process technology of the previous microarchitecture and every "tock" is a new microarchitecture

Microarchitecture

In computer engineering, microarchitecture , also called computer organization, is the way a given instruction set architecture is implemented on a processor. A given ISA may be implemented with different microarchitectures. Implementations might vary due to different goals of a given design or...

. Every year, there is expected to be one tick or tock.

Roadmap

Architectural change		Codename	Fabrication process	Release date	Processors
					Enthusiast	Desktop	Mobile	Marketing names
Tick	Die shrink Die shrink The term "die shrink" refers to a simple semiconductor scaling of semiconductor devices, mainly transistors. The act of shrinking a die is to create a somewhat identical circuitry using a more advanced fabrication process, usually involving an advance of lithographic node...	Presler, Cedar Mill, Yonah	65 nm 65 nanometer The 65 nm process is an advanced lithographic node used in volume CMOS semiconductor fabrication. Printed linewidths can reach as low as 25 nm on a nominally 65 nm process, while the pitch between two lines may be greater than 130 nm.. For comparison, cellular ribosomes are...	January 5, 2006	Presler	Cedar Mill	Yonah	Core Pentium 4 Pentium 4 Pentium 4 was a line of single-core desktop and laptop central processing units , introduced by Intel on November 20, 2000 and shipped through August 8, 2008. They had a 7th-generation x86 microarchitecture, called NetBurst, which was the company's first all-new design since the introduction of the... Pentium D Pentium D The Pentium D brand refers to two series of desktop dual-core 64-bit x86-64 microprocessors with the NetBurst microarchitecture manufactured by Intel. Each CPU comprised two dies, each containing a single core, residing next to each other on a multi-chip module package. The brand's first processor,... Pentium M Pentium M The Pentium M brand refers to a family of mobile single-core x86 microprocessors introduced in March 2003 , and forming a part of the Intel Carmel notebook platform under the then new Centrino brand... Pentium Dual-Core Celeron Celeron Celeron is a brand name given by Intel Corp. to a number of different x86 computer microprocessor models targeted at budget personal computers....
Tock	New microarchitecture	Core		July 27, 2006	Kentsfield Kentsfield (microprocessor) Kentsfield is the code name of the first Intel desktop quad core CPU branded Core 2 , released on November 2, 2006. The top-of-the-line Kentsfields were Core 2 Extreme models numbered QX6xx0, while the mainstream ones branded Core 2 Quad were numbered Q6xx0. All of them featured two 4 MB L2...	Conroe Conroe (microprocessor) Conroe is the code name for many Intel processors sold as Core 2 Duo, Xeon, Pentium Dual-Core and Celeron. It was the first desktop processor to be based on the Core microarchitecture, replacing the NetBurst microarchitecture based Cedar Mill processor. It has product code 80557, which is shared...	Merom Merom (microprocessor) Merom is the code name for various Intel processors that are sold as Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Solo, Pentium Dual-Core and Celeron. It was the first mobile processor to be based on the Core microarchitecture, replacing the Enhanced Pentium M based Yonah processor. Merom has product code 80537, which is...	Core 2 Pentium Dual-Core Pentium Celeron Dual-Core Celeron Celeron M
Tick	Die shrink	Penryn	45 nm 45 nanometer Per the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, the 45 nm technology node should refer to the average half-pitch of a memory cell manufactured at around the 2007–2008 time frame....	November 11, 2007	Yorkfield	Wolfdale Wolfdale (microprocessor) Wolfdale is the code name for a processor from Intel that is sold in varying configurations as Core 2 Duo, Celeron, Pentium and Xeon. In Intel's Tick-Tock cycle, the 2007/2008 "Tick" was Penryn microarchitecture, the shrink of the Core microarchitecture to 45 nanometers as CPUID model 23...	Penryn Penryn (microprocessor) Penryn is the code name of a processor from Intel that is sold in varying configurations as Core 2 Solo, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Pentium and Celeron....
Tock	New microarchitecture	Nehalem		November 17, 2008	Bloomfield Bloomfield (microprocessor) Bloomfield is the code name for Intel high-end desktop processors sold as Core i7-9xx and single-processor servers sold as Xeon 35xx., in almost identical configurations, replacing the earlier Yorkfield processors. The Bloomfield core is closely related to the dual-processor Gainestown, which has...	Lynnfield Lynnfield (microprocessor) Lynnfield is the code name for a quad-core processor from Intel released in September 2009. It is sold in varying configurations as Core i5-7xx, Core i7-8xx or Xeon X34xx. Lynnfield uses the Nehalem microarchitecture and replaces the earlier Penryn based Yorkfield processor, using the same 45 nm...	Clarksfield Clarksfield (microprocessor) Clarksfield is the code name for an Intel processor, initially sold as mobile Intel Core i7. It is closely related to the desktop Lynnfield processor, both use quad-core dies based on the 45 nm...	Core i3 Core i5 Core i7 Pentium Pentium The original Pentium microprocessor was introduced on March 22, 1993. Its microarchitecture, deemed P5, was Intel's fifth-generation and first superscalar x86 microarchitecture. As a direct extension of the 80486 architecture, it included dual integer pipelines, a faster FPU, wider data bus,... Celeron Celeron Celeron is a brand name given by Intel Corp. to a number of different x86 computer microprocessor models targeted at budget personal computers....
Tick	Die shrink	Westmere	32 nm 32 nanometer The 32 nm process is the step following the 45 nanometer process in CMOS semiconductor device fabrication. 32 nanometer refers to the average half-pitch of a memory cell at this technology level...	January 4, 2010	Gulftown	Clarkdale Clarkdale (microprocessor) Clarkdale is the code name for an Intel processor, initially sold as desktop Intel Core i5 and Core i3 and Pentium. It is closely related to themobile Arrandale processor; both use dual-core dies based on the 32 nm...	Arrandale
Tock	New microarchitecture	Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge is the codename for a microarchitecture developed by Intel beginning in 2005 for central processing units in computers to replace the Nehalem microarchitecture...		January 9, 2011	Sandy Bridge-EX	Sandy Bridge-DT	Sandy Bridge-NB
Tick	Die shrink	Ivy Bridge	22 nm 22 nanometer The 22 nanometer node is the CMOS process step following 32 nm. It was introduced by semiconductor companies in 2011. The typical half-pitch for a memory cell is around 22 nm...	Q2 2012
Tock	New microarchitecture	Haswell		Q1 2013
Tick	Die shrink	Broadwell	14 nm 16 nanometer The 16 nanometer node is the technology node following the 22 nm node. The exact naming of the technology nodes comes from the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors . By conservative ITRS estimates the 16 nm technology is projected to be reached by semiconductor companies in the...	2014
Tock	New microarchitecture	Skylake Skylake (microarchitecture) Skylake is the codename for a processor microarchitecture to be developed by Intel as the successor to the Haswell architecture. Skylake will use a 14 nm process....		2015
Tick	Die shrink	Skymont	10 nm 11 nanometer The 11 nanometer node is the technology node following 16 nm node. The exact naming of this technology node comes from the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors...	2016
Tock	New microarchitecture			2017

External links

• Intel Tick-Tock Model of Architecture & Silicon Cadence