Intel Corp (INTC)

[simplytom]

There are really some disturbing details in the conference call, in the leaked roadmaps and inside the coreboot github repository.

Perhaps we are realy hitting the end of moores law.

The resistance of BEOL is rising with every shrink.

So this will have a direct effect on the FO4-metrics of the chip.
So the pipeline stages in itself have to be redesigned to fit into the next process node.

But a handcrafted and handoptimized pipeline could be superior compared to a automatically generated pipeline stage for a smaller node.

If Intel is able to create a 10nm process which is able to build Xeon dies with 28 cores and 4ghz of frequency then it is possible that they are the only company which is able to build this processors.

The CPU has to be handcrafted to supplement the metrics of the process.

It seems to be easier to build a mobile CPU.

So they killed SoFia a couple of years ago and now Sofia comes back with Lakefield Foveros.

But now they have a new partner in crime with Microsoft.

Microsoft said they don't want to create yet another smartphone which don't have unique features - instead they want to wait until a new form factor is starting and they want to be in front of the wave.

So foveros lakefield and the 5g modem(remember they only stopped the development of the SMARTPHONE modem) will be a new foundation for the foldable Andromeda / Santorini devices.
Lakefield already has an IPU (Image Processing Unit) important for the camera. This was one reason why Sofia was a lame duck. Because camera on SoFia-Phones was mediocre.

I am courious about the amount of ram inside foveros lakefield.
Is it
[] 4gb
[] 8gb
[] 16gb


But if you look at the tweakers.net-roadmap there is a disturbing detail hidden.
The first 10nm 6core cpu will be in january 2021.

So the hiring of Raja Koduri and Jim Keller is because they need other calculation pipelines / not so "demanding" pipelines inside their portfolio (just to fill the fabs).

10nm++ will be the last process for big monolithic single-thread-heavy cores.
Perhaps we are now seeing 18inch 450mm wafers just to lower the cost of one die.
So a Cloud-CPU will have 28cores on one die but inside one package there are maybe 10 dies. And so we will see a 280-Core package.

The core with the higher single-thread-performance is the winner in this race.