Intel Shares More Information for Hybrid Lakefield Technology

[Guest_Jim_*]

Today Intel has revealed more details of its Hybrid Technology, codenamed Lakefield, that leverages Foveros 3D and multiple CPU architectures for improved performance and efficiency. The two processors announced today target the ultra-light and innovative form factors, but still offer full Windows 10 application compatibility.

The Lakefield design allows the CPUs to have a single Sunny Cove core matched with four Tremont cores, with Tremont being a low-power x86 design. By communicating with the OS scheduler, tasks can be sent to the most appropriate cores, based on whether the performance of Sunny Cove or the efficiency of Tremont is desired. They also feature Gen11 graphics that can convert videos faster than previous designs, drive up to four external 4K displays, and the compute engine can be applied for high-throughput inference applications, including some AI-enhanced workloads. It also features native dual internal display pipes, which is important for foldable and dual-screen devices like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold that was shown off at CES 2020 and should be shipping this year.

Just as impressive as combining the Sunny Cove and Tremont cores into a single design, Intel is using its Foveros 3D technology to make the package significantly more compact With this, two logic dies are stacked on top of each other, with then two layers of DRAM on top of them, removing the need for external memory. The reduced package size, at just 12 mm x 12 mm x 1 mm, means it can fit in more devices and form factors, where board sizes can be severely limited.

The two processors announced are the Core i5-L16G7 and Core i3-L13G4. They both offer 5 cores and 5 threads, have 4 MB of cache, use LPDDR4X-4267 memory, and have 7 W TDPs. Intel also states that at standby the SOC power can be as low as 2.5 mW. The differences between them come from the number of Execution Units for the graphics, with the Core i5 having 64 EUs compared to the Core i3's 48 EUs, and the clock speeds. The Core i5 has a base frequency of 1.4 GHz while the Core i3 is at 0.8 GHz. The maximum All Core Turbos are 1.8 GHz and 1.3 GHz for the Core i5 and Core i3 respectively, while the Core i5 can hit 3.0 GHz on a single core, and the Core i3 can reach 2.8 GHz on a single core.

As previously mentioned, processors with Intel Hybrid Technology will be available in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold that should be shipping this year as well as the Samsung Galaxy Book S that should be available in select markets this month. These might not prove to be the most powerful CPUs, but the amount of innovation could prove very interesting, depending on how much is applied to other market segments. AMD has already shown some benefits with bringing memory closer to a processor by its use of HBM on Fiji and Vega graphics cards. Those did not have the memory dies stacked on-top of the logic dies though, but instead had them placed on the same substrate. Some rumors for Intel's Xe GPUs suggest die stacking will be used to combine multiple tiles holding the EUs and to bring greater performance and flexibility to the design, not unlike AMD's approach for connecting Zen dies to build entire product stacks.

 

 

Source: Intel

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