Thursday, February 24th 2022
Intel Makes Jilted Reference to Apple in its Internal "Arrow Lake" Slide
Intel is designing a "Halo" SKU of a future generation of mobile processors with a goal to match Apple's in-house silicon of the time. Slated for tape-out some time in 2023, with mass-production expected in 2024, the 15th Generation Core "Arrow Lake-P Halo" processor is being designed specifically to compete with Apple's "premium 14-inch laptop" (presumably the MacBook Pro) that the company could have around 2024, based on an in-house Apple silicon. This is to essentially tell its notebook partners that they will have an SoC capable of making their devices in the class truly competitive. Apple relies on a highly scaled out Arm-based SoC based on in-house IP blocks, with a software that's closely optimized for it. Intel's effort appears to chase down its performance and efficiency.
The Core "Arrow Lake" microarchitecture succeeds the 14th Gen "Meteor Lake." It is a multi-chip module (MCM) of three distinct dies built on different fabrication nodes, in line with the company's IDM 2.0 strategy. These nodes are Intel 4 (comparable to TSMC N7 or N6), Intel 20A (comparable to TSMC N5), and an "external" 3 nm-class node that's just the TSMC N3. The compute tile, or the die which houses the CPU cores, combines a hybrid CPU setup of 6 P-cores, and 8 E-cores. The performance cores are likely successors of the "Redwood Cove" P-cores powering the "Meteor Lake" compute tiles. Intel appears to be using one kind of E-cores across two generations (eg: Gracemont across Alder Lake and Raptor Lake). If this is any indication, Arrow Lake could continue to use "Crestmont" E-cores. Things get interesting with the Graphics tile.
With Meteor Lake, Intel is disaggregating the iGPU out of both the "processor die" and the platform tile. The company understands the importance of having a fast iGPU in the wake of competition from not just Apple, but also AMD tapping into its latest RDNA-series IP to create powerful iGPUs. The graphics tile of Arrow Lake-P Halo will very likely be based on the node with the highest transistor density (our money is on TSMC N3). This tile features a whopping 320 execution units (EUs), which work out to 2,560 unified shaders. Intel is designating the iGPU its highest performance designation in the series, "GT3." The least advanced node of the three, Intel 4, could be used for the platform or I/O tiles, which house the memory controllers, PCIe root-complexes, and various SoC I/O interfaces.
Source:
VideoCardz
The Core "Arrow Lake" microarchitecture succeeds the 14th Gen "Meteor Lake." It is a multi-chip module (MCM) of three distinct dies built on different fabrication nodes, in line with the company's IDM 2.0 strategy. These nodes are Intel 4 (comparable to TSMC N7 or N6), Intel 20A (comparable to TSMC N5), and an "external" 3 nm-class node that's just the TSMC N3. The compute tile, or the die which houses the CPU cores, combines a hybrid CPU setup of 6 P-cores, and 8 E-cores. The performance cores are likely successors of the "Redwood Cove" P-cores powering the "Meteor Lake" compute tiles. Intel appears to be using one kind of E-cores across two generations (eg: Gracemont across Alder Lake and Raptor Lake). If this is any indication, Arrow Lake could continue to use "Crestmont" E-cores. Things get interesting with the Graphics tile.
17 Comments on Intel Makes Jilted Reference to Apple in its Internal "Arrow Lake" Slide
90% of Intel's current defecit is because of the Fab inferiority. With them leading the way in terms of High-NA EUV orders, I expect them to be able to close the gap to TSMC in terms of fabrication, and then Intel's architecture talents will shine through.
- Engineering: everybody employs smart guys, smarter than anyone lurking some random internet forum
- Marketing: this I hate with a passion; nothing but hollow words, often released years before you're supposed to be buying an actual product
- Business: this is what people usually get mixed with morals; to this, I'm applying the "hate the game, don't hate the player" mantra.
I'm not seeing it!?.
Maybe it was the name of the person that sent the memo people name children interesting names lol
It's the only blacked out area :cool:
They have the relationship with OEM to ensure they push those laptop.
Intel and AMD can murder themselves on the GPU front, but the real company to take over is Nvidia. I think it would be easy to steal market share from AMD but there isn't that much. Stealing market share from Nvidia is where the money is and a design like this can make a huge dent in the laptop market.
But i am surprised that it's Intel that will do it first in the x86 market. That is the kind of thing that a leader would do and that probably mean that AMD is still not a leader on the laptop market. (techwise i mean, not market share wise).
If you look at the picture carefully, you can see that "Introduces LNC+SKT on N3". LNC is short for Lion Cove, and SKT is for Skymont. That matches older rumors.
Man, Arc is gonna be amazing, Intel said so 2 yrs ago. It's totally gonna be great and compete...with 2016 GPUs.
Add 1-2 yrs min to everything and cut performance to LOL levels and you have an accurate Intel product forecast.
I'm still waiting on those 7nm products from last year that might come in 1.5 more yrs (I expect a couple token mobile chips just like the sad ramp of 10nm).
make a decent CPU for a thin and light laptop that doesn't run nuclear hot and is impossible to cool, and you might have something
your previous statements and product schedule about 10nm are still present in everyone's mind