Intel's Future Chips: News, Rumours & Reviews

[juanrga]

Broadwell to Skylake, will be similar to the transition from Prescott to Conroe

http://www.bitsandchips.it/9-hardware/5413-il-passaggio-da-broadwell-a-skylake-sara-simile-al-passaggio-da-prescott-a-conroe

The author talks about a completely new design with massive IPC gains.

I see a lot of weasel words myself. I'm going to hold onto my 10-15% CPU side improvement prediction.

Doesn't the TDP increase imply something more? I expect 60% IPC increase over Broadwell thanks to AVX-512.

Isn't TDP (Thermal Design Power) essentially just Intel's indication of how much heat the processor will output in a "worst case scenario"? It doesn't seem like a TDP increase is likely to give any sort of good indication as to how much of a performance gain we should expect from the next generation of Intel processors.

1st Generation Core-i7 130W TDP
(Gulftown)

2nd Generation Core-i7 95W TDP w/ ~15%(?) performance increase
(SandyBridge)

3rd Generation Core-i7 77W TDP w/ ~5-15% performance increase
(IvyBridge)

4th Generation Core-i7 84W TDP w/ ~5-15% performance increase
(Haswell)

5th Generation Core-i7 65W(?) TDP w/ ~5-15%(?) performance increase
(Broadwell)

6th Generation Core-i7 95W(?) TDP
(Skylake)


I have definitely generalized the performance increases there, but none of the CPUs has brought more than a 20% performance increase over their predecessor. The TDP of the processors has fluctuated completely independent of all performance gain numbers. So why do you think a 46% TDP increase from Broadwell to Skylake is indicative of a similar performance increase?

Here you are mixing different processors on different nodes. The transition from 32nm to 22nm or from 22nm to 14nm reduced TDP because the area reduction was more important than the possible increase due to architectural improvements. However Ivy --> Haswell (both on 22nm) increased TDP about 10% and the Haswell architecture is more faster than Ivy.

Broadwell--> Skylake will be both 14nm, but the TDP increases from 65W to 95W. That is 46% more and indicates us some massive performance gain of some kind. The number of cores doesn't change: four vs four. Thus the TDP increase has to be due to IPC gains per core or to higher frequencies. I personally expect massive IPC gains on AVX-like software.

 

[de5_Roy]

Broadwell Xeon D lands on Mini-ITX boards
http://techreport.com/news/28029/broadwell-xeon-d-lands-on-mini-itx-boards

According to Japanese site Akiba PC Hotline, the boards should be available toward the end of April. The site quotes pricing in the ¥150,000-130,000 range, which works out to around $1091-1260 USD with a direct exchange-rate conversion. That price should include the CPU mounted on the motherboard.

not.cheap. 🙁

anandtech's 3dmark api overhead benches, mostly intel cpu and other i/gpus
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9112/exploring-dx12-3dmark-api-overhead-feature-test

 

[juanrga]

4th Generation Core-i7 84W TDP w/ ~5-15% performance increase
(Haswell)

5th Generation Core-i7 65W(?) TDP w/ ~5-15%(?) performance increase
(Broadwell)

6th Generation Core-i7 95W(?) TDP
(Skylake)

The reduction here just seems to be due to a Intel's preference to focus on lower power at all cost.

Note the fastest Broadwell i7 is only 3.3/3.8 Ghz.
The Haswell line i7 topped out at 4.0/4.4 Ghz

The reduction is likely due to the FIVR which can't be cooled directly as it sits under the package.
Good for reducing z-height and better regulation at lower voltages.

He mentioned 84W Haswell. The 4.0/4.4GHz part was rated at higher TDP.

 

[juanrga]

A nice article with updated info on the new KNL Phi. I enjoy the package shot showing the giant die plus the eight memory stacks

http://www.theplatform.net/2015/03/25/more-knights-landing-xeon-phi-secrets-unveiled/

 

[-Fran-]

That thing looks expensive to make, lol.

That is targeted to the HPC crowd, right?

Cheers!

 

[Cazalan]

That thing looks expensive to make, lol.

That is targeted to the HPC crowd, right?

Cheers!

HPC or rich kids.
It peaks out at 16GB MCDRAM and 384GB of DDR4 (6 channels).
That's about $8500 for just the DDR4 sticks.

 

[de5_Roy]

Intel gets ready for its largest acquisition ever – report
http://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/intel-gets-ready-for-its-largest-acquisition-ever/

 

[Cazalan]

Intel gets ready for its largest acquisition ever – report
http://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/intel-gets-ready-for-its-largest-acquisition-ever/

Sounds costly for a market with limited growth, but it would pay for itself in about 10 years.

"Come fab with us and we might just buy your company" :lol:

 

[gamerk316]

Intel gets ready for its largest acquisition ever – report
http://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/intel-gets-ready-for-its-largest-acquisition-ever/

REALLY good pickup for Intel.

 

[de5_Roy]

Are Intel and Microsoft crippling stick PCs?
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37384-are-intel-and-microsoft-crippling-stick-pcs

 

[Cazalan]

Are Intel and Microsoft crippling stick PCs?
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37384-are-intel-and-microsoft-crippling-stick-pcs

These are hard to figure out because you can get a 7" tablet with WIn 8.1 for $79. (Winbook TW700 Tablet).
You would think these stick PCs would be even cheaper.

 

[de5_Roy]

Mini-review: Intel’s powered-up Core i7 Broadwell mini PC
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/03/mini-review-intels-powered-up-core-i7-broadwell-mini-pc/
irs hd6100 (no edram, memory bottlenecked)

First Single 32GB DDR4 RAM Modules Spotted for Sale
http://www.eteknix.com/first-single-32gb-ddr4-ram-modules-spotted-for-sale/

 

[-Fran-]

So the i7 with Iris Pro 6100 doesn't beat Kaveri on brute iGPU performance (they're basically equal according to Anandtech's initial Kaveri review and several driver updates before today: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7677/amd-kaveri-review-a8-7600-a10-7850k/14) but trashes Kaveri in perf/watt all around (not big surprise there). If that is the level for the 6100, then the 6200 could be in for a good show on Intel's part.

They look fine for a nice HTPC build, I have to say. I really want more benchies to see a bigger picture though.

Cheers!

 

[juanrga]

So the i7 with Iris Pro 6100 doesn't beat Kaveri on brute iGPU performance

No. The 28W chip reviewed doesn't have Iris Pro graphics, but 6100 graphics (300MHz GPU without L4) tested with slow 1600/1866 DDR3 memory.

 

[-Fran-]

So the i7 with Iris Pro 6100 doesn't beat Kaveri on brute iGPU performance

No. The 28W chip reviewed doesn't have Iris Pro graphics, but 6100 graphics (300MHz GPU without L4) tested with slow 1600/1866 DDR3 memory.

What a coincidence, Kaveri was also reviewed everywhere with slow DDR3 1600 RAM

Also, as usual, thanks for ignoring the rest of the post with your ironic "28W part".

Cheers!

 

[juanrga]

So the i7 with Iris Pro 6100 doesn't beat Kaveri on brute iGPU performance

No. The 28W chip reviewed doesn't have Iris Pro graphics, but 6100 graphics (300MHz GPU without L4) tested with slow 1600/1866 DDR3 memory.

What a coincidence, Kaveri was also reviewed everywhere with slow DDR3 1600 RAM

Also, as usual, thanks for ignoring the rest of the post with your ironic "28W part".

Top Kaveri is bottlenecked by DDR3 even when using 2133MHz modules. Iris Pro uses fast L4 for providing the needed bandwidth. I think I didn't ignore anything of relevance in your post. What do you mean?

 

[-Fran-]

Top Kaveri is bottlenecked by DDR3 even when using 2133MHz modules. Iris Pro uses fast L4 for providing the needed bandwidth. I think I didn't ignore anything of relevance in your post. What do you mean?

I mean that I did notice it was Iris 6100 and it's lack of L4 cache. I also noticed it was a ULV part, but thanks for making it evident. Also, yes, we know even DDR3's fastest spec'ed RAM is still "slow" for Intel, but that also applied to AMD.

In any case, I don't know why you felt the need to point those things out and they read like irony (or sarcasm) to me. It could be a "lost in translation" thing, but it's no harm to give away that information.

In regards to the article, like I said, I'm interested in seeing what Iris 6200 can achieve.

Cheers!

 

[Cazalan]

In regards to the article, like I said, I'm interested in seeing what Iris 6200 can achieve.

That part was $426 already. Imagine with Iris Pro? $550-600? Ouch!

 

[-Fran-]

In regards to the article, like I said, I'm interested in seeing what Iris 6200 can achieve.

That part was $426 already. Imagine with Iris Pro? $550-600? Ouch!

Oh yeah, but leaving price to the side for just one time, I'm interested in seeing what Intel can achieve with "no strings attached" this time. Iris Pro 5200 was a nice showing, but didn't make a dent as a product line. I'm sure the successor won't either, but for academic purposes it will be interesting to see how it does. Let's see how much money Intel has to burn in making a decent APU. I know that might read bitter, but in reality I'm not trying to make it sound like that, haha.

Cheers!

 

[Cazalan]

Oh yeah, but leaving price to the side for just one time, I'm interested in seeing what Intel can achieve with "no strings attached" this time. Iris Pro 5200 was a nice showing, but didn't make a dent as a product line. I'm sure the successor won't either, but for academic purposes it will be interesting to see how it does. Let's see how much money Intel has to burn in making a decent APU. I know that might read bitter, but in reality I'm not trying to make it sound like that, haha.

Cheers!

Skylake with 72EU would do some damage but not expecting much more from Broadwell really.

 

[gamerk316]

Again guys, Broadwell = niche product. The good stuff comes out Q3 (probably Q4 when all is said and done).

 

[de5_Roy]

Again guys, Broadwell = niche product. The good stuff comes out Q3 (probably Q4 when all is said and done).

anything with I7 or Iris Pro in the model number will be too expensive for regular users. anything Broadwell will be too expensive because intel is trying to recoup moniez.
if intel's current igpus do have a choked front-end, skylake's GT4/GT4e might not make much of a difference.

edit:
Intel quietly launches Braswell processors
http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2015/2015033101_Intel_quietly_launches_Braswell_processors.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9125/intel-braswell-details-quietly-launched-cherry-trail-and-airmont-on-14nm

Spoiler

Model Cores /Threads Frequency /Turbo L2cache Graphics Memory TDP Price
Celeron N3000 2 / 2 1.04 / 2.08 GHz 1 MB Gen 8-LP DDR3-1600 4W $107
Celeron N3050 2 / 2 1.6 / 2.16 GHz 1 MB Gen 8-LP DDR3-1600 6W $107
Celeron N3150 4 / 4 1.6 / 2.08 GHz 2 MB Gen 8-LP DDR3-1600 6W $107
Pentium N3700 4 / 4 1.6 / 2.4 GHz 2 MB Gen 8-LP DDR3-1600 6W $161

these are too costly for cheap pcs.

edit2:
Microsoft Surface 3 promises great battery life, costs just $499 and runs Windows 8.1
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2902508/microsoft-surface-3-promises-great-battery-life-costs-just-499-and-runs-windows-81.html
qualcomm snapdragon out, intel cherry trail in.

Intel talks about Knights Landing architecture
http://semiaccurate.com/2015/03/31/intel-talks-knights-landing-architecture/

 

[juanrga]

I mean that I did notice it was Iris 6100 and it's lack of L4 cache.

Wait a moment, you wrote "Iris Pro 6100" and I replied to that saying that is not a Pro part.

Again guys, Broadwell = niche product. The good stuff comes out Q3 (probably Q4 when all is said and done).

Broadwell change is that brings Iris Pro to socketed desktop. But, yes Skylake is the real game changer.

Intel talks about Knights Landing architecture
http://semiaccurate.com/2015/03/31/intel-talks-knights-landing-architecture/

He talks about 72 cores but the version demoed has 60 cores and did run 240 threads at once.

 

[de5_Roy]

Initial Intel Braxton Support Might Come To Linux 4.1
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-Braxton-Linux-4.1-Kernel

edit:
How Open-Source Allowed Valve To Implement VULKAN Much Faster On The Source 2 Engine
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve-lunarg-vulkan&num=1
regardless of it reads, it's an intel story. about it's igpu drivers!

 

[uglyduckling81]

Intel will probably buy the failing AMD and integrate their graphics into their chips. It will also secure the outstanding x86 licence which AMD has, making for a full monopoly. Sad times ahead.