Monday, November 26th 2018
14nm 6th Time Over: Intel Readies 10-core "Comet Lake" Die to Preempt "Zen 2" AM4
If Intel's now-defunct "tick-tock" product development cadence held its ground, the 14 nm silicon fabrication node should have seen just two micro-architectures, "Broadwell" and "Skylake," with "Broadwell" being an incrementally improved optical shrink of 22 nm "Haswell," and "Skylake" being a newer micro-architecture built on a then more matured 14 nm node. Intel's silicon fabrication node advancement went off the rails in 2015-16, and 14 nm would go on to be the base for three more "generations," including the 7th generation "Kaby Lake," the 8th generation "Coffee Lake," and 9th generation "Coffee Lake Refresh." The latter two saw Intel increase core-counts after AMD broke its slumber. It turns out that Intel won't let the 8-core "Coffee Lake Refresh" die pull the weight of Intel's competitiveness and prestige through 2019, and is planning yet another stopgap, codenamed "Comet Lake."
Intel's next silicon fabrication node, 10 nm, takes off only toward the end of 2019, and AMD is expected to launch its 7 nm "Zen 2" architecture much sooner than that (debuts in December 2018). Intel probably fears AMD could launch client-segment "Zen 2" processors before Intel's first 10 nm client-segment products, to cash in on its competitive edge. Intel is looking to blunt that with "Comet Lake." Designed for the LGA115x mainstream-desktop platform, "Comet Lake" is a 10-core processor die built on 14 nm, and could be the foundation of the 10th generation Core processor family. It's unlikely that the underlying core design is changed from "Skylake" (circa 2016). It could retain the same cache hierarchy, with 256 KB per core L2 cache, and 20 MB shared L3 cache. All is not rosy in the AMD camp. The first AMD 7 nm processors will target the enterprise segment and not client, and CEO Lisa Su in her quarterly financial results calls has been evasive about when the first 7 nm client-segment products could come out. There was some chatter in September of a "Zen+" based 10-core socket AM4 product leading up to them.
Source:
HotHardware
Intel's next silicon fabrication node, 10 nm, takes off only toward the end of 2019, and AMD is expected to launch its 7 nm "Zen 2" architecture much sooner than that (debuts in December 2018). Intel probably fears AMD could launch client-segment "Zen 2" processors before Intel's first 10 nm client-segment products, to cash in on its competitive edge. Intel is looking to blunt that with "Comet Lake." Designed for the LGA115x mainstream-desktop platform, "Comet Lake" is a 10-core processor die built on 14 nm, and could be the foundation of the 10th generation Core processor family. It's unlikely that the underlying core design is changed from "Skylake" (circa 2016). It could retain the same cache hierarchy, with 256 KB per core L2 cache, and 20 MB shared L3 cache. All is not rosy in the AMD camp. The first AMD 7 nm processors will target the enterprise segment and not client, and CEO Lisa Su in her quarterly financial results calls has been evasive about when the first 7 nm client-segment products could come out. There was some chatter in September of a "Zen+" based 10-core socket AM4 product leading up to them.
123 Comments on 14nm 6th Time Over: Intel Readies 10-core "Comet Lake" Die to Preempt "Zen 2" AM4
I just hope AMD can finally improve IPC/clocks and gaming performance (yes I know someone will jump and say that is only a 5% difference when is not but whatever) and then Intel is officially done unless they start selling products with decent pricing. 500€ for a 8 core no HT cpu in 2018 is unacceptable.
Reason why Im still with Intel is because I use 240hz monitor and cant even look back to 144hz. Ryzen could not sustain those 160-200 fps on most games. But if Zen2 can do it I will jump to 8 core finally.
This might seem dumb for you, but as a curiosity, when I tell my mom that my "dream" cpu costs 500€ (she knows I love computers), she doesnt believe it. Is completly outrageous. I think some ppl dont even think about what 500€ are worth. Same goes for those dudes pumping 1300€ for a video card to play videogames. Mental. Im on this hardware stuff for almos 2 decades and I never seen high end pc components being so premium. I have money to buy those products but mentally I would never accept paying that kind of cash. Makes no sense.
And even if you want a solid gpu like 1070 or 1070ti you spend 400€-500€ and already need to lower a lot of details at 1080p on recent games like shadow of the tomb raider or black ops4.
The only reason why i am not buying 2700x is the lack of iGPU.
Stop releasing overheating Skylakes for f*** sake!
You can even reuse AMD's marketing with few minor changes.
IBM went fabless, AMD went fabless, Intel has floated the idea of going fabless, and there's maybe only two companies that are going to reach a smaller lithograph at...not very many fabs. If there isn't a revolution in process technology soon, we're careening towards the end of the Digital Age.
It's all about gate-free monolayer WSe2 pn diodes now...