Intel’s IDM 2.0 Strategy
To understand Intel’s roadmap, we need to understand their strategy and therefore how they intend to move the various pieces in order to strengthen their dominance in the market. We already talked about it in HardZone. Which is based on three different branches:
- The vast majority of products will be manufactured at Intel itself.
- External foundries will be used for some specific products or when Intel’s production capacity is not sufficient for the huge portfolio of products to be developed.
- Intel will sell part of its production to third parties so that they can manufacture its chips.
It must be taken into account that in the last point it is not a relationship like that of AMD with TSMC, since Intel will be the one who will develop the Full Custom libraries to be used in its processors to then license them in semi- personalized for third parties. . This is the difference with its rivals in terms of design and production, in that they have vertical integration between design and manufacturing which allows them to take full advantage of their manufacturing nodes.
Similarly, Intel will use TSMC nodes for some components, but the relationship will not be to create custom hardware libraries, but rather to use existing ones in order to relieve stress on their foundries. An example is in Intel ARC GPUs; which are built using TSMC’s semi-custom libraries.
Intel Manufacturing Node Roadmap
| Node | Performance per extra watt | launch | VIEW | transistor | processors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel 7 | 10-15% | In production | Undetermined | FinFET optimized | Alder Lake, Raptor Lake, Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids. |
| Intel 4 | 20% | Second half of 2022 | And | FinFET optimized | meteor lake |
| Intel3 | 18% | Second half of 2023 | And | FinFET optimized | Granite Rapids, Sierra Forest |
| Intel 20A | > 20% | Second half of 2024 | And | RibbonFET (GAA) | Arrow Lake, |
| Intel 18A | To announce | Second half of 2025 | Yes, high NA | Tape Optimized FET (GAA) | Nova Lake |
To better understand Intel’s roadmap, we need to know what node or chip manufacturing processes they have already developed or are in the process of and who will be in charge of chip manufacturing. Future Intel Core and Xeon
Intel PC Processor Roadmap
Intel’s idea is to release a new architecture every year, so aside from Raptor Lake for 2022, Meteor Lake in 2023, and Arrow Lake in 2024, we have both Lunar Lake and Nova Lake on the roadmap for 2024 and 2025 respectively.
As if that weren’t enough, Intel is planning annual launches with a new manufacturing node starting with its move to tiles, taking advantage of smaller chips. Thus, Meteor Lake will use the Intel node 4, Lunar Lake from the 20A node and Nova Lake pear finish from the 18A. The packing and number of tiles or chiplets on each node will also change. 3 in the case of Meteor Lake, 4 in the case of Lunar Lake and 5 in the case of Nova Lake.
raptor lake
In 2022 we will see the launch of Raptor Lake, an improved version of the Alder Lake architecture which will launch as the thirteenth generation of Intel processors, but which will bring a series of interesting news.
This is a processor that is fully compatible with the current Alder Lakes desktop socket, but it will bring new features such as a more advanced overclocking system and support for M.2 modules for intelligence artificial Intel. As for the number of cores, it will increase from 16 to 24 cores, but it will do so by increasing the number of E-Cores from 8 to 16 and not the P-Cores, therefore the number of execution threads will increase to 32 cores . .
Intel promises double-digit CPI improvements of at least 10%. We know that one of the novelties is a reorganization of the internal electrical network or PDN of the processor. Which should get you higher base and higher clock speeds than current Alder Lake architecture processors. Although this is not the only reason for the improved performance.
Intel has upgraded the P-Core to rival Zen 4, and it’ll be Raptor Lake on PC with Emerald Rapids on servers and workstations, giving it that performance boost to rival the Ryzen 7000 and Intel. ‘EPYC Genova.
The abandonment of monolithic CPUs in Intel’s roadmap
It should be noted that Alder Lake and Raptor Lake, corresponding to the twelfth and thirteenth generations of Intel Core processors, will be the last to use monolithic cores. Since meteor lake From now on, they will choose to separate the processor into different tiles or chiplets, more precisely into three different ones:
- CPU or compute tile: it includes the CPU with its various cores, as well as its cache structure. Compared to AMD, the Compute Tile is equivalent to the CCD Chiplet. This part will be built using Intel’s most advanced fabrication nodes.
- SoCs: These are the Northbridge, memory controller, and the Southbridge, peripheral controller, united on a single chip. Equivalent to the AMD Ryzen IOD. This part will be built using legacy or established Intel manufacturing nodes or external foundries.
- Mosaic GPU: this was the integrated GPU, but separate from the main processor. We’ve seen this on laptop CPU variants before, but this will be the first time it’s been done on desktop CPUs. This part is expected to be manufactured by TSMC under its L3 node.
There are several advantages to using a processor made up of tiles or chiplets, the first of which is that it allows you to break the limit of the lattice in the wafers, but above all the fact of being able to use less advanced manufacturing nodes for parts of the processor that does not require advanced technology to operate, such as memory and device controller.
Meteor Lake and beyond
And what can we highlight in the Intel roadmap regarding Meteor Lake and what comes next? The processor will use the Intel Node 4 in its manufacturing process, especially in its compute tile whose P-Core will again receive an architectural update. It should be released in 2023 if there is no delay. Beyond we have Arrow Lakewhich will be the first Intel product to use its process 20A. The safest thing is that it will do so in the CPU Tile, while the rest of the components will repeat from its predecessor. The latest processor on the roadmap is Nova Lake manufactured in 18A.
Intel Processor Roadmap for Servers
In servers, Intel will not sit idly by and will use the same architectures and technologies that it will deploy for PCs. although with the difference that they will favor the architecture of personal computers in terms of launch dates. That is, new manufacturing nodes will be deployed on Intel Core first, not Xeon.
sapphire rapids
For this 2022 we expect Diamond Rapids, which will use the new P-Core cores that we saw in the Intel Core 12, but unlike that it is not a hybrid architecture. So we’re not going to see a single E-Core. Among its novelties at the server level are the adoption of DDR5 memory and fifth-generation PCIe that we have already seen on the desktop, but also the Compute Express Link or CXL.
emerald rapids
The next shutdown will be in 2023 and will also use Intel Node 7. If Sapphire Rapids is a CPU built from Intel Core 12 P-Cores, Emerald Rapids will be the same with Intel Core 13 or Raptor Lake.
Sierra Forest
Intel will not only launch servers based on its P-Core, but also intends to create server processors based on its E-Colors. Sierra Forest which will be released in 2024 will be the first of these.
granite rapids
As for servers, Intel plans to launch its future Diamond Rapids architecture using its Intel 3 node, with which they promise 18% better performance per watt than the Intel 4 node. All this to build an Intel Xeon consisting of 144 cores and 288 threads each.
The only time it looks like they will break from this tradition will be with Granite Rapids which will exclusively use the Intel Node 3. At this time in the Intel roadmap they haven’t mentioned architectures making the Node 20A or more advanced. On the contrary, they have not been named with a specific name, but it is known that we will also see Intel Xeon using nodes 20A and 18A.
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