Intel "Tiger Lake" Microarchitecture Features HEDT-like Cache Rebalancing?

[btarunr]

With its "Skylake" microarchitecture, Intel significantly re-balanced the cache hierarchy of its HEDT and enterprise multi-core processors to equip CPU cores with larger amounts of faster L2 caches, and lesser amounts on slower shared L3 cache. The company retained its traditional cache balance for its mobile and desktop processor derivatives. This could change with the company's "Tiger Lake" microarchitecture, particularly the "Willow Cove" CPU cores they use, according to a Geekbench online database listing for a prototype quad-core "Tiger Lake-Y" mobile processor.

According to this listing, assuming Geekbench is reading the platform correctly; the "Tiger Lake-Y" processor features a 4-core/8-thread CPU, with a massive 1,280 KB (1.25 MB) of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of L3 cache. Intel also enlarged the L1D (data) cache to be 48 KB in size, while the L1I (instruction) cache remains 32 KB. This amounts to a 400% increase in L2 cache size, and a 50% increase in L3 cache size. Unlike with "Skylake-X," the increase in L2 cache size doesn't come with a decrease in shared L3 cache size (per core). The "Tiger Lake-Y" processor is being tested on a "Corktown" prototyping platform (a specialized motherboard that has all possible I/O connectivity available with the platform, for testing. "Tiger Lake" is expected to make its debut some time in 2020-21 as a successor to "Ice Lake," and will be built on Intel's refined 10 nm++ silicon fabrication node. Find the Geekbench entry in the source link below.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[cucker tarlson]

Bring L4 back.
Id go for a 5ghz CPU with ddr4 edram even if it was 4c/8t

 

[windwhirl]

I honestly can't handle the amount of Lakes Intel has going around between those that are already in production and the future product lines.

 

[_Flare]

Nice to see intel is experimenting. But from what i´ve heard there will be no desktop parts with 10nm from intel, beside the very low numbers we will see in mobile and evtl. server.
intel is now slowly shifting its future-marketing away from 10nm to 7nm, because 10nm and 10++ etc. is unfixable, from what i´ve heard.
So icelake-SP will be in very low numbers and will co-exist with the cascadelake-sp successor

 

[notb]

Nice to see intel is experimenting. But from what i´ve heard there will be no desktop parts with 10nm from intel, beside the very low numbers we will see in mobile and evtl. server.
intel is now slowly shifting its future-marketing away from 10nm to 7nm, because 10nm and 10++ etc. is unfixable, from what i´ve heard.

I would not call the incoming mobile 10nm offer "very low numbers".
It can turn out that by mid 2020 Intel will be doing almost all of their mobile series (up to 25W) using 10nm.
Only some of the larger chips will remain on 14nm.

 

[Imsochobo]

I would not call the incoming mobile 10nm offer "very low numbers".
It can turn out that by mid 2020 Intel will be doing almost all of their mobile series (up to 25W) using 10nm.
Only some of the larger chips will remain on 14nm.

Only time will tell, it's very limited at the moment and it's cpu performance is not great either so it's definitely not an upgrade imho.
You trade cpu performance for gpu performance today so Tiger lake will be what will push mobile to 10nm unless they do a refresh of icelake in the meantime ?

 

[notb]

Only time will tell, it's very limited at the moment and it's cpu performance is not great either so it's definitely not an upgrade imho.

CPU performance is better than previous generation, which was leading the market. So it's not great compared to what?

For a while these CPUs were only available in "showcase" convertibles. That isn't true anymore.
This month Ice Lake U started shipping in mainstream consumer laptops: Dell Inspiron and Lenovo IdeaPad.

Sure, 14nm 10th gen is still ubiquitous, but 10nm is not "very limited" anymore if Dell and Lenovo were able to secure chips for their best selling lineups.

Some series haven't been updated yet - including workhorses like Dell Latitude and IBM ThinkPad T/L.
IMO they're waiting for Ice Lake U with vPro and 6 cores instead of Iris.

 

[hat]

Interesting. I thought we moved away from huge caches after Core 2 Duo, when we replaced FSB with a faster connection.

 

[efikkan]

"Tiger Lake" is expected to make its debut some time in 2020-21 as a successor to "Ice Lake," and will be built on Intel's refined 10 nm++ silicon fabrication node.

Tiger Lake will be on the 10nm+ node. 10nm++ will be coming later in 2021.

Bring L4 back.
Id go for a 5ghz CPU with ddr4 edram even if it was 4c/8t

I believe L4 was mostly used for integrated graphics.
In my opinion, L4 wouldn't make much sense unless the cache hierarchy is changed even more by splitting data and instructions beyond L1, except for certain edge cases of course.

I honestly can't handle the amount of Lakes Intel has going around between those that are already in production and the future product lines.

Well, I guess more unique names could be useful, but does it really matter, or are you trying to find faults here?

Nice to see intel is experimenting. But from what i´ve heard there will be no desktop parts with 10nm from intel, beside the very low numbers we will see in mobile and evtl. server.
intel is now slowly shifting its future-marketing away from 10nm to 7nm, because 10nm and 10++ etc. is unfixable, from what i´ve heard.
So icelake-SP will be in very low numbers and will co-exist with the cascadelake-sp successor

Intel have recently added driver support for Tiger Lake, including mainstream desktop and entry workstation models up to 95W.
Intel have also recently stated that desktop is on the roadmap, and that yields are "ahead of expectations for client and data-center products".
It's not a question of if, but when and how many 10nm products we'll see on the desktop. Intel will not skip 10nm, 7nm will be ready in small volumes in 2021, and not mainstream volumes until 2022/2023. For 2020, it will be interesting to see if Intel will launch a platform consisting of both 10nm and 14nm parts, and if so, how it will be segmented.

 

[notb]

Tiger Lake will be on the 10nm+ node. 10nm++ will be coming later in 2021.

Ice Lake U is already 10nm+.
Original 10nm is the process that didn't work. Intel only used it for a single i3 and a few development products.

 

[cucker tarlson]

I believe L4 was mostly used for integrated graphics.
In my opinion, L4 wouldn't make much sense unless the cache hierarchy is changed even more by splitting data and instructions beyond L1, except for certain edge cases of course.

no it was "victim cache" on 5th gen (if i remember the term correctly)

What I found about 5775c EDRAM's impact on gaming performance.

I found the option in bios to OC my EDRAM as well as disable it. I chose WatchDogs2 as my benchmark because of how CPU dependent that games is. Resolution is 2560x1440 but graphics settings are low to rule out GPU bottleneck. The results are staggering. EDRAM @2GHz - 118 FPS EDRAM disabled -...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[efikkan]

Ice Lake U is already 10nm+.

Original 10nm is the process that didn't work. Intel only used it for a single i3 and a few development products.

Nope, 10nm+ is not on the market yet. It's scheduled for 2020.

no it was "victim cache" on 5th gen (if i remember the term correctly)

What I found about 5775c EDRAM's impact on gaming performance.

I found the option in bios to OC my EDRAM as well as disable it. I chose WatchDogs2 as my benchmark because of how CPU dependent that games is. Resolution is 2560x1440 but graphics settings are low to rule out GPU bottleneck. The results are staggering. EDRAM @2GHz - 118 FPS EDRAM disabled -...

www.techpowerup.com

A victim cache only means that it's filled by entries evicted from the higher cache level. L3 is also a victim cache in most designs.

 

[cucker tarlson]

A victim cache only means that it's filled by entries evicted from the higher cache level. L3 is also a victim cache in most designs.

yes.that.

 

[notb]

Nope, 10nm+ is not on the market yet. It's scheduled for 2020.

No, seriously. Ice Lake was always meant to be 10nm+. This naming has been around since 2017 at least - as visible here:

Intel Officially Reveals Post-8th Generation Core Architecture Code Name: Ice Lake, Built on 10nm+

www.anandtech.com

 

[efikkan]

No, seriously. Ice Lake was always meant to be 10nm+. This naming has been around since 2017 at least - as visible here:

Intel Officially Reveals Post-8th Generation Core Architecture Code Name: Ice Lake, Built on 10nm+

www.anandtech.com

No, I'm sorry but you're wrong. It doesn't matter when they intended to launch it, but the fact that as of may 2019 it was still scheduled for 2020:

https://images.anandtech.com/doci/14312/2019-Intel-Investor-Meeting-Renduchintala_12.jpg

 

[R0H1T]

No, I'm sorry but you're wrong. It doesn't matter when they intended to launch it, but the fact that as of may 2019 it was still scheduled for 2020:

https://images.anandtech.com/doci/14312/2019-Intel-Investor-Meeting-Renduchintala_12.jpg

If by 10nm you mean the watered down version of what was originally planned then yes, otherwise notb is right as this is 10nm+ not the dumpster fire version CNL was shipped with.

Ice Lake (client) - Microarchitectures - Intel - WikiChip

Ice Lake (ICL) Client Configuration is Intel's successor to Cannon Lake, a 10 nm microarchitecture for mainstream mobile devices.

en.wikichip.org

 

[notb]

No, I'm sorry but you're wrong. It doesn't matter when they intended to launch it, but the fact that as of may 2019 it was still scheduled for 2020:

https://images.anandtech.com/doci/14312/2019-Intel-Investor-Meeting-Renduchintala_12.jpg

OK, so we're disagreeing on the "+" and Intel made contradictory materials over the years.

But do we at least agree on this being the second generation of their 10nm?

 

[seronx]

Cannonlake = 10nm
Icelake = 10nm
Tigerlake = 10nm++

10nm+ is slotted only for SunnycoveX in the Icelake-SP product.

Goldencove and WillowcoveX are both 7nm products, as well as Gracemont.

 

[efikkan]

If by 10nm you mean the watered down version of what was originally planned then yes, otherwise notb is right as this is 10nm+ not the dumpster fire version CNL was shipped with.

No, he is not.
When Intel originally intended to release 10nm+ and 10nm++ is irrelevant to the classification of their current node which is still 1st generation 10nm.

OK, so we're disagreeing on the "+" and Intel made contradictory materials over the years.

But do we at least agree on this being the second generation of their 10nm?

The facts are that Cannon Lake and Ice Lake (-U/-Y) are made on the same first generation of the 10nm node.
Intel themselves knows best what distinguishes the revisions of the node, and they add + or ++ to mark a major revision of the node which changes the base features; like gate pitch, materials etc.

Just because Intel originally intended 10nm(1st gen) to arrive ~2016 and 10nm+(2nd gen) ~2017, doesn't make the current iteration "10nm+"(2nd gen). Intel have continuously postponed 10nm+(2nd gen) until they have resolved the issues they faced on 10nm (1st gen), which they seem to indicate is resolved now, but time will tell.

Intel's 10nm+ node (2nd gen) will debut Q2 next year with Ice Lake-SP/-X, and followed by Tiger Lake.

 

[windwhirl]

Well, I guess more unique names could be useful, but does it really matter, or are you trying to find faults here?

Ha! No, it's just that I'm getting a headache thinking about Lakes.

 

[Bones]

If by 10nm you mean the watered down version of what was originally planned then yes, otherwise notb is right as this is 10nm+ not the dumpster fire version CNL was shipped with.

Ice Lake (client) - Microarchitectures - Intel - WikiChip

Ice Lake (ICL) Client Configuration is Intel's successor to Cannon Lake, a 10 nm microarchitecture for mainstream mobile devices.

en.wikichip.org

And that explains why they need those lakes..... All of 'em.
Gotta have something to put them out with.

Makes me wonder about stuff like just how hot will these chips run once released and other things too.
We already know some of their chips are literal heaters, they'd best hope these won't be the same which is a similar thing to whats been happening with AMD's 7nm chips. Hotter than we're used to seeing but still works, as long as they can get that part right they'll have something working for them.

 

[voltage]

If anyone at INTEL happens to read this, (doubtful, but you never know) you need to release tiger lake in 2020, and not 2021. If you do release it in 2021, you may lose more market share to the sand people., aka the tusken raiders.

 

[R-T-B]

I honestly can't handle the amount of Lakes Intel has going around between those that are already in production and the future product lines.

It does seem like they went "lake crazy."

I have a suspicion "lake" denotes the node, 14nm.

Were Sandy/Ivy Bridge on the same nm level node? Or not? I forget...

EDIT: Nope. Ivy bridge was a die shrink.

Intel just went land o' lakes on us.

 

[Imsochobo]

CPU performance is better than previous generation, which was leading the market. So it's not great compared to what?

For a while these CPUs were only available in "showcase" convertibles. That isn't true anymore.
This month Ice Lake U started shipping in mainstream consumer laptops: Dell Inspiron and Lenovo IdeaPad.

Sure, 14nm 10th gen is still ubiquitous, but 10nm is not "very limited" anymore if Dell and Lenovo were able to secure chips for their best selling lineups.

Some series haven't been updated yet - including workhorses like Dell Latitude and IBM ThinkPad T/L.
IMO they're waiting for Ice Lake U with vPro and 6 cores instead of Iris.

Singlethread better, multicore worse.
Gpu better, 15W vs 15W.
watch reviews of ice lake in 15W configurations and not 25W and it's obvious that while the architecture improvements give hope the node holds it back.

 

[notb]

Singlethread better, multicore worse.
Gpu better, 15W vs 15W.
watch reviews of ice lake in 15W configurations and not 25W and it's obvious that while the architecture improvements give hope the node holds it back.

Intel Core i7-1065G7 Ice Lake Linux Performance Benchmarks Review - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com

Ice lake U wins in all benchmarks when compared to similar 4-core 14nm CPUs.

The only 15W SoC that beats these (in multi thread) is the 6-core Comet Lake U.