David Flynn29 March 2007, 9:24 AM
Intel's plans for the next two generations of its CPU microarchitecture begin with the first 45nm 'Penryn' processor due later this year.
Although Intel's first IDF techfest for 2007 is just weeks away, the colossus of chips doesn't want to wait to break some big news -- and perhaps tweak AMD's nose in the process.
The company today shared some details on its forthcoming Penryn family of processors, as well as setting up the timetable for the two platforms which will succeed the current Core microarchitecture.
It's all based on what Intel calls its ‘tick tock' system which overlaps new processors with new architectures in alternate years, with the net effect that both the processor and microarchitecture streams each build on and feed back into the other in a state of constant momentum.
"For the beginning of each silicon generation we have a processor that's derived from the prior generation, and that's the tick" explains Stephen Smith, Vice President and Director for Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. "Then we have a product that's the larger step, what we call the tock, which is a new microarchitecture to really bring on a leadership level of performance."
Penryn
The first step will be the shift to 45nm. As the first processor to be built on 45nm die, when released in the second half of this year the Penryn line will succeed the current Merom family of 65nm Core 2 processors (Merom being the codename for the entire line as well as the mobile CPU branch) but offer drop-in compatibility with current desktops, notebooks and servers.
While based on today's Merom family, Penryn will boost the Level 2 cache by 50 percent to a maximum of 6MB in desktops and notebooks (from Merom's 4MB ceiling) and a meaty 12MB slab for quad-core servers (currently topping out at 8MB).
 Penryn die: Up very close and personal with Intel's first 45nm processor, due later this year |
Clock speeds will reach and likely exceed 3GHz, the range where Pentium-based systems hit the wall in the days of the Megahertz Wars (although many overclockers ratched a Pentium Extreme Edition 965 from its rated 3.73GHz to a redline of 4.26GHz) and before Intel went back to the drawing board to produce the efficient dual-core systems.
In addition to quad-core server powerplants, Penryn chips will ship in ‘mobile optimised' and ‘desktop opimised' versions which Smith expects will "remain dual core in the mainstream for quite some time, although we expect quad-core to slowly move through the desktop segment first with performance desktops, and the mobile segment obviously later".
While not being drawn on specific products, Smith also tipped that Penryn chips wind find a way into ultra-mobile PCs. "Eventually we'll be moving all of our core products, including ultramobiles, down the technology roadmap, and you can its attractive to utilise 45nm (in UMPCs) because we get the highest performance at the lowest power)."
Core, and more
"The Penryn design and a family of products based on the Penryn, are derived from the Core microarchitecture, provides the tick for the 45nm process" Smith says. "Then Nehalmem which we expect to ship in 2008 provides the tock, the large microarchitecture step and the biggest leap in system design since the Pentium Pro about ten year ago."
Although alternatively described as both a microarchitecture and a post-Penryn processor family built for that microarchitecture, Nehalem represents the wave that will succeed Core and result in a new microarchitecture sometime in 2008.
While this ‘Son of Core' has yet to be given a name, Smith is obviously aware of the potential for confusion. Today we already have Core, Core 2 and the derivative Core 2 Duo brands running parallel. "Clearly we'd like to build on our brand identification over time and not introduce too many discontinuities".
The pace quickens in 2009, when the first 32nm processors belonging to the Westmere family will roll out of Intel's fabrication plans and slip into Nehalem-based systems. Then in 2010 it's time for another ‘tock' of the Intel clock, when the third-generation Core microarchitecture codenamed Gesher is expected to touch down.