Wednesday, January 29th 2020
Intel Core i5-L16G7 is the first "Lakefield" SKU Appearance, Possible Prelude to New Nomenclature?
Intel Core i5-L16G7 is the first commercial SKU that implements Intel's "Lakefield" heterogenous x86 processor architecture. This 5-core chip features one high-performance "Sunny Cove" CPU core, and four smaller "Tremont" low-power cores, with an intelligent scheduler balancing workloads between the two core types. This is essentially similar to ARM big.LITTLE. The idea being that the device idles most of the time, when lower-powered CPU cores can hold the fort; performance cores kick in only when really needed, until which time they remain power-gated. Thai PC enthusiast TUM_APISAK discovered the first public appearance of the i5-L16G7 in an unreleased Samsung device that has the Userbenchmark device ID string "SAMSUNG_NP_767XCL."
Clock speeds of the processor are listed as "1.40 GHz base, with 1.75 GHz turbo," but it's possible that the two core types have different clock-speed bands, just like the cores on big.LITTLE SoCs. Other key components of "Lakefield" include an iGPU based on the Gen11 graphics architecture, and an LPDDR4X memory controller. "Lakefield" implements Foveros packaging, in which high-density component dies based on newer silicon fabrication nodes are integrated with silicon interposers based on older fabrication processes, which facilitate microscopic high-density wiring between the dies. In case of "Lakefield," the Foveros package features a 10 nm "compute field" die sitting atop a 22 nm "base field" interposer.
Intel's nomenclature for the Core i5-L16G7 is fascinating. It condenses Intel's lengthy "i9-10980XE" (7-character) model names down to 5, besides the main brand extension (i3, i5, i7, i9). The first character probably represents the product type, followed by a numerical model number, further followed by "G" denoting the presence of integrated graphics, and a numeral next to "G" denoting its tier. Here's hoping this nomenclature holds, because Intel now has three: the 10th gen "Comet Lake" mobile processors retain the classic nomenclature (eg: Core i7-10710U), while the 10th gen "Ice Lake" has a slightly improved nomenclature (eg: Core i7-1065G7), and now "Lakefield" brings in the shortest of the three (eg: Core i5-L16G7).
Source:
TUM_APISAK (Twitter)
Clock speeds of the processor are listed as "1.40 GHz base, with 1.75 GHz turbo," but it's possible that the two core types have different clock-speed bands, just like the cores on big.LITTLE SoCs. Other key components of "Lakefield" include an iGPU based on the Gen11 graphics architecture, and an LPDDR4X memory controller. "Lakefield" implements Foveros packaging, in which high-density component dies based on newer silicon fabrication nodes are integrated with silicon interposers based on older fabrication processes, which facilitate microscopic high-density wiring between the dies. In case of "Lakefield," the Foveros package features a 10 nm "compute field" die sitting atop a 22 nm "base field" interposer.
33 Comments on Intel Core i5-L16G7 is the first "Lakefield" SKU Appearance, Possible Prelude to New Nomenclature?
+ GPUs
+ OneAPI
Nice.
www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/intel-could-develop-its-own-big-little-x86-adaptation.243071/
Then again, considering about 3 decades ago my computer was Z80 based, where we are today is pretty unbelievable in its entirety.
"Oh yeah, that one is your best bet, the Intel Core i7-*beatboxing gibberish*"
My head tried to think how to pronounce a QR code and was brought back to the Post Office scene in Men in Black 2.
An efficient low power core could still be used in say, a game, for a less demanding thread. It's greater efficiency would make it produce less heat than a high performance core doing the same job, and performance would be unaffected for that thread.
But because it's not generating as much heat, your package temp as a whole is lower, which would mean the high performance cores may be able to clock higher for longer, increasing overall performance.
Sure, for a workload like Blender or Cinebench it's going to be slower, since there are no threads in those workloads that are of lower priority than other threads, but for a mixed workload like a game it could have advantages, especially if the low power cores are physically placed between the high power ones, thus helping to reduce the thermal density of the CPU die overall.
That's what Intel is these days. A powerpoint company who has cool tech behind closed doors (or so they say) but no actual compelling products in retail.
Care to explain?Reality disagrees. You've missed the financial reporting, right?
On Topic: I'm really curious about the market this would cater to and cannot wonder if they're not to late to the party, time will tell though.
I think this is new technology and its apparently one attempt for Intel to move CPU forward. I don't see what's wrong with that, and I'll take this sort of news a hundred times over the next Lake-on-fire. Its a bench of working, new tech...
7nm = not delivered until 2022 at the earliest.
Foveros = not delivered
Lakefield = not delivered
EMIB = not delivered. Only a single product from years ago.
Optane 2nd gen = not delivered
PCI-E 4.0 = not delivered
GPU's = not delivered. Only a single low end development vehicle.
Willow Cove = not delivered
Golden Cove = not delivered
Sapphire Rapids = not delivered
Intel. A company that overpromises and underdelivers.
A variation of Samsung's Galaxy Book S with Lakefield is set to release this year.
They really improved battery life in smartphones. No reason why something similar wouldn't happen in laptops.
Late to the party - clearly not - there's no competition on x86. And it'll make incoming ARM ultrabooks less attractive as well.
In fact, I'd love to have control over this. Like a big, mechanical switch on the side of my laptop for limiting the CPU just to the little cores (we used to get that for WiFi).
Multiple random events make the CPU spike from time to time - eating battery and generating more cooling noise.
But when I'm just reading a text or doing basic browsing, I'm fine with a 2-core Atom limited to 3W.
Also, since such a 3W chip would be fine on laptop's passive cooling capabilities (with big margin), one could safely keep the notebook running in a bag or even a sleeve.
Possible use cases are quite simple to imagine. But let's wait and see what kind of product we actually get. :)
A game, or any complex software, runs many threads (even tens or hundreds). They will be run on all available cores.
The problem is: some threads are heavy and some are extremely light.
If a program runs 2 compute threads and 10 tiny "utility" threads, it'll use 2 cores and just a marginal part of the rest.Because of context switching.
So in the Blender example mentioned earlier: heavy rendering would be run on the "big" cores, while light background stuff (OS, networking etc) could be kept on the small ones. That means less switching and less performance lost.
And on the other hand: that would help PC remain responsive (usable) even under heavy load (also improving stability!). If your mouse/keyboard, your music player and browser are run by separate cores, you can still do something useful with a PC that is otherwise totally clogged by a computing task.
Regardless of all they don't deliver, I think its good to keep an eye out for the developments that DO matter, and BIG.Little on x86... I say bring it on! We've already seen its merit.
What you're suggesting is not possible on Windows now, though I also believe this is the most interesting chip from Intel in a long, really long time!