Intel prolonged its public microprocessor roadmap by way of 2020 on Wednesday, confirming the existence of “Tiger Lake,” a 10nm Core chip due in 2020 that options a wholly new microarchitecture and Intel’s forthcoming Xe graphics.
Executives additionally started disclosing among the efficiency enhancements related to its previously-announced chips, comparable to how briskly Intel’s first 10nm chip, Ice Lake, will probably be in contrast with the earlier era. Intel additionally started speaking a bit concerning the enhancements in “Lakefield,” which stacks logic collectively to create a denser system-on-a-chip.
Combine the brand new 10nm “Ice Lake” core—which executives mentioned would ship in June—plus the redesigned Tiger Lake chip, in addition to Intel’s different main announcement, 7nm chips by 2021, and Intel is not less than speaking extra aggressively than it has in years.
IntelNot fairly a proper roadmap, however shut.
Ice Lake
Speaking at Intel’s investor convention Wednesday, Murthy Renduchintala, Intel’s chief engineering officer, mentioned that it’s no secret that Intel has struggled with 10nm improvement.
IntelIntel’s Ice Lake isn’t that distant.
“In discussions with many of you, the belief is that Intel’s process technology has slowed down over time,” Renduchintala added. Wednesday’s message? That’s not the case.
Ice Lake, Renduchintala mentioned, takes full benefit of the 10nm expertise. Though he didn’t disclose efficiency, he did present some generation-over-generation comparisons, albeit with no actual specifics. It’s fascinating that Intel’s not speaking straight about CPU integer efficiency; as a substitute, Intel believes that Ice Lake will ship 2.5 occasions to three occasions the “AI performance” of a prior-generation chip, and twice the graphics efficiency.
IntelMore releases predicated upon Ice Lake are coming, too.
Ice Lake additionally comprises what Intel refers to as “Generation 11” efficiency, which apparently will probably be branded as a “Next Gen Graphics Iris Plus Experience,” if the boilerplate textual content in Intel’s presentation is any indication. Gregory Bryant, the senior vp and basic supervisor of the Client Computing Group, instructed buyers that the built-in graphics is highly effective sufficient to play a whole bunch of video games at 1080p resolutions at 30 (not 60) frames per second.
Tiger Lake
According to Renduchintala, the lead product for the 7nm era will really be a GP-GPU for the datacenter in 2021, based mostly upon the brand new Xe structure that Intel is creating. PC customers, nonetheless, will probably be specializing in Tiger Lake.
IntelIntel’s Lakefield chip crams loads within it: a number of CPUs, reminiscence, and I/O.
Recall that Lakefield combines a number of components to create a singular system-on-a-chip: a CPU based mostly on the “Sunny Cove” structure that’s assumed to be the idea of “Ice Lake”, in addition to a “Tremont” Atom CPU core. In this sense, Intel’s Lakefield is designed a way much like ARM chips, with the Core chip kicking in underneath efficiency hundreds, and the Atom chips dealing with many of the hundreds that don’t require excessive efficiency.
Again, Intel’s solely portray Lakefield’s efficiency in broad strokes, evaluating it to the present Amber Lake chips for thin-and-light PCs. Still, the numbers are spectacular, with twice the graphics efficiency, a 1.5X to 2X decrease energetic energy consumption, and a whopping 10X enchancment on SOC standby efficiency. Intel’s clearly addressing the low-power market that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx PC processors are aiming for through the third quarter.
The query now: what is going to Intel showcase at Computex later this month? Bryant instructed buyers that we’ll start to see Project Athena ultrabooks showing by the vacation season, and he confirmed that the Athena laptops will start delivery with Tiger Lake subsequent 12 months, as properly. Intel opened the Project Athena Open Labs earlier this week to assist carry these designs to life.
