Clam's Chip Commentary - Thoughts on Intel's Unified Core Project
Posted by Geddagod@reddit | hardware | View on Reddit | 3 comments
An interesting read by one of the authors of Chips and Cheese on his personal website.
Geddagod@reddit (OP)
I mean Intel is still rumored to continue having hybrid client CPUs post unified core too. So it does not sound like that is happening.
Also why I think core area discussions have to be more nuanced than just looking at the core + L2. Is it really the core's fault that Intel's uncore has been so poor for generations now? The uncore being so slow and high latency doesn't even seem to be any sort of 'PPA' trade off, it just seems like Intel can not get a fast L3 in client or in DC. I don't think their L3 iso process is particularly dense either? I haven't checked so I could be wrong on that.
Also helps explain how Apple's P-cores are so performant. Their cluster area savings come from the fact that they use a shared L2 cache with no L3, not because the logic in their cores are small.
I don't think the area comparison of LNC vs RPC makes much sense. Lion Cove is on a significantly denser node. If one wants to make the claim that LNC solved much of Intel's area problems relative to the competition, which I also think is true anyway, a comparison vs contemporary cores in the same node class makes more sense IMO.
Idk if having a lower capacity ROB is inherently worse, if you are able to achieve similar IPC as cores with larger ROBs. Hasn't that been the trend with Intel's E-cores anyway?
What's interesting about frequency is that the E-cores also appear to have a good bit higher OCing potential than the P-cores too. And I doubt simply relaxing the area constraints of the core won't allow for higher clock speeds too. After all, Skymont's area allocation is tiny.
I mean wasn't AMD already very behind Intel in ST perf anyway? Them not being able to close the gap in one gen, even if it was a large rework, is hardly a knock against it, especially since AMD was still using a worse node than Intel.
AMD lowkey flamed Global Foundries when at ISSCC when they compared cluster area vs Intel while also pointing out that their node was just less dense and they used fewer metal layers.
Disconsented@reddit
I wonder what is "kept" here on the M4 P-Core
CopperSharkk@reddit
It's heavily rumored it's going to use the E core as a baseline. Also the leaked codename copper shark follows the atom cores naming.