Saturday, July 20th 2024
Intel Intros 14th Gen Core "E" Embedded Processors with E-cores Disabled
Intel introduced a line of 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" Socket LGA1700 processors for the embedded systems market. A highlight of these chips is that they come with their "Gracemont" E-core clusters disabled, and are pure P-core chips. It's interesting that Intel targets these chips for the embedded systems segment, but isn't building these in the non-socketed BGA packages carried over from its mobile platforms. Intel is addressing nearly all performance market-segments with these chips, including the very top. The Core i9-14901KE processor leading the pack is an 8-core/16-thread chip with eight "Raptor Cove" cores sharing the full 36 MB L3 cache available on the "Raptor Lake-S" die, a maximum boost frequency of 5.80 GHz, base frequency of 3.80 GHz, and processor base power of 125 W. The chip features an iGPU. The "K" in KE denotes that the chip supports overclocking.
Next up, is the Core i9-14901E, the 65 W sibling of this chip, which lacks an unlocked multiplier, and boosts up to 5.60 GHz, with a 2.80 GHz base frequency. Things get interesting with the Core i7-14701E, because the differentiator between the Core i9 and Core i7 SKUs is E-core count, and here we see the i7-14701 retaining the same 8-core/16-thread pure P-core configuration as the Core i9 chips, but with a touch lower frequencies of 5.40 GHz maximum boost, and 2.60 GHz base.
The Core i5-14501E is a 6-core/12-thread processor based on the larger "Raptor Lake-S" die, unlike the regular Core i5-14500 that uses the "Alder Lake-S" die. The 6 P-cores share 24 MB of L3 cache, and each feature 2 MB of dedicated L2 cache, unlike the i5-14500, which sees 1.25 MB of L2 cache per P-core, besides the 8 E-cores. This chip boosts up to 5.20 GHz, and has a base frequency of 3.30 GHz. The i5-14501TE is a variant of this chip with 45 W processor base power, 5.10 GHz maximum boost frequency, and 2.20 GHz base frequency.
Lastly, there are the Core i5-14401E, i5-14401EF, and the i5-14401TE. The first two are differentiated with the i5-14401EF lacking integrated graphics, the first two are 65 W chips, while the i5-14401TE is 45 W. The i5-14401E/EF boost up to 4.70 GHz, with a 2.50 GHz base frequency, while the i5-14401TE boosts up to 4.50 GHz, with a 2.00 GHz base frequency.
All chips in the 14th Gen Core E-series feature the same I/O as the regular 14th Gen Core desktop processors, with a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 PEG interface, a CPU-attached Gen 4 x4 NVMe interface, and a DMI 4.0 x8 chipset bus. The memory interface supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory types.
Sources:
VideoCardz, Jaykihn (Twitter)
Next up, is the Core i9-14901E, the 65 W sibling of this chip, which lacks an unlocked multiplier, and boosts up to 5.60 GHz, with a 2.80 GHz base frequency. Things get interesting with the Core i7-14701E, because the differentiator between the Core i9 and Core i7 SKUs is E-core count, and here we see the i7-14701 retaining the same 8-core/16-thread pure P-core configuration as the Core i9 chips, but with a touch lower frequencies of 5.40 GHz maximum boost, and 2.60 GHz base.
Lastly, there are the Core i5-14401E, i5-14401EF, and the i5-14401TE. The first two are differentiated with the i5-14401EF lacking integrated graphics, the first two are 65 W chips, while the i5-14401TE is 45 W. The i5-14401E/EF boost up to 4.70 GHz, with a 2.50 GHz base frequency, while the i5-14401TE boosts up to 4.50 GHz, with a 2.00 GHz base frequency.
All chips in the 14th Gen Core E-series feature the same I/O as the regular 14th Gen Core desktop processors, with a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 PEG interface, a CPU-attached Gen 4 x4 NVMe interface, and a DMI 4.0 x8 chipset bus. The memory interface supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory types.
64 Comments on Intel Intros 14th Gen Core "E" Embedded Processors with E-cores Disabled
www.extremetech.com/computing/276138-is-hyper-threading-a-fundamental-security-riskThat's because different types of workloads are processed in different ways by the processor. Some are extremely easy (basic math and word processing), others not so much.
HT is always a permanent access to a side-channel on privileged processes, unless HT is disabled through instructions. You mostly can only use HT on the same process, which limits it's usefulness.
Before people freak out thinking that E-cores are broken, this is probably because some embedded systems are real-time and can't have Thread Director running around. At least not while it is in it's infancy.
Having a real-time scheduler is problematic enough as it is.
By the way, Skymont E-cores have a reorder buffer size of 416. Does this actually mean that an instruction (or a micro-op) can keep waiting while 415 other instructions are executed? That sounds quite incredible to me, reorder buffers and associated logic can't scale linearly with the buffer size, it's a n^2 relationship probably, or not?
Is that an Intel term? I get what they're referring to, but I've never seen it used anywhere else and a quick Google search really only returns one site thwt acknowledges its existence....an Intel site.
Who the "overclockable embedded" chip is aimed at ... I have no idea.
Why sell bigger dies for the same amount that you can sell smaller dies?
You need to realize, desktop chips are an afterthought for both amd and intel, we aren't really getting the best product possible, we are only getting whatever is leftover from servers and laptops. Especially on the AMD side with their ccd approach.