Tick-Tock was an aggressive development model introduced by Intel in 2005 and phased out in 2016 whereby microarchitecture changes were in-sync with their process shrink. Under the tick-tock scheme roughly every 12-18 months the Intel alternated between "Tick" and "Tock".

Under the Tick-Tock Model:

• Tick - With each tick, Intel advances their manufacturing process technology in line with Moore's Law. Each new process introduces higher transistor density and a generally a plethora of other advantages such as higher performance and lower power consumption. During a tick, Intel retrofits their previous microarchitecture to the new process which inherently yielded better performance and energy saving. During a tick, usually just a few features and improvements and new instructions are introduced.

• Tock - With each tock, Intel uses the their latest manufacturing process technology from their "tick" to manufacture a newly designed microarchitecture. The new microarchitecture is designed with the new process in mind and typically introduces Intel's newest big features and functionalities.