Intel will have a lot to say at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, spanning the spectrum of silicon from mobile to server processors. Here are a few of the highlights from abstracts of Intel sessions at the ISSCC, which kicks off Sunday in San Francisco.
Nehalem, currently marketed as the Core i7, will scale down to sub-10-watt chips--that's ultraportable notebook (think MacBook Air) territory:
- "A family of next-generation IA processors...The family has a coherent point-to-point link and integrates memory controller, power-management microcontroller and power-gate transistors and scales from sub-10 to 130W in mobile, desktop and server applications."
Part of the message will be more brute-force silicon: more processor cores, bigger caches--especially for Intel's high-end Xeon processor line:
- 8-core Xeon processor (aka Nehalem-EX): "An 8-core 16-thread enterprise Xeon processor has 2.3B transistors in 9M 45nm CMOS...operation up to 6.4GT/s...Core and cache shut-off techniques are used to minimize leakage." (Note: '9M" means nine metal layers; "GT/s" is giga-transfers per second.)
- 6-core Xeon (aka Dunnington): "A monolithic 6-core Xeon processor has 1.9B transistors in 9M 45nm CMOS with a 9MB L2 and 16MB L3 cache and exceeds 1M transactions/minute TPCC in 8-socket configuration. The FSB (Front-Side Bus) I/O circuits are implemented in the center of the die to reduce I/O latency. A low-leakage process variant with cache-sleep and shut-off modes enables low-power 6-core 65W and 4-core 50W variants."
And let's try not to forget Itanium--Intel's, some would say, ill-fated silicon for very-high-end severs:
- "The clock system for a 700mm2 65nm quad-core Itanium processor has a cascaded PLL (phase locked loop) architecture and enables dynamic frequency switching."
Intel will also present on graphics-related mobile silicon:
- "A 4-way SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) accelerator for power-constrained microprocessors fabricated in 1.1V, 45nm CMOS occupies 0.081mm2...Enables mode-dependent power savings while achieving wide operating range (1.3V to 230mV) with 2.3GHz, 161mW operation at 1.1V and peak SIMD energy efficiency of 494GOPS/W at 300mV, 50 (degrees) C."
IBM is now offering 45-nanometer chipmaking "foundry" services based on its silicon-on-insulator technology.
Foundries have become a big business in the chip industry. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the largest foundry in the world, builds chips for Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. AMD announced in October that it was spinning off its manufacturing operations into a foundry.
Most of the advanced manufacturing technology offered to date at foundries has been based on a 65-nanometer process. Typically, the smaller the chip geometries, the faster or more power-efficient the chips are.
On Monday, IBM said that 45-nanometer (nm) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) foundry services are available immediately. The company currently makes chips for Sony and Nintendo, among others.
SOI at 45nm offers up to a 30 percent performance improvement or a 40 percent power reduction when compared to more conventional silicon technology, referred to as bulk complementary metal-oxide (CMOS) technology.
The downside is that SOI is more expensive than bulk silicon, a hurdle to adoption by a wider range of customers. Intel does not use SOI technology for its silicon.
IBM said it was the first company to begin commercially shipping SOI technology in its server products during the 1990s, adding that its SOI technology is now used by all the major gaming hardware providers.
The service announced Monday adds industry-standard design tools and libraries to the intellectual property already available through IBM's existing SOI development infrastructure, the company said.
ARM said Monday that it was announcing support for IBM's new 45nm SOI foundry with a SOI physical intellectual property library including standard cell, memory, and I/O libraries.
Advanced Micro Devices will bring out processors early next year--at the latest--that appear to be much more competitive with Intel offerings, according to a report.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker has struggled of late competing with a crush of new 45-nanometer desktop processors from Intel. Typically, as geometries get smaller, processors become faster and more power efficient. AMD is currently shipping 65-nanometer processors.
AMD 45-nanometer quad-core die
(Credit: AMD)AMD will meet this challenge with the first desktop processors based on its own 45-nanometer process technology. Initial models are due go into production in the fourth quarter, according to Chinese-language Web Site HKEPC, which lists 10 new AMD processors expected to be released during the next three quarters.
The Web site cites motherboard manufacturers as its source.
Processor code names include Deneb and Propus. Two versions of the former will go into production in the fourth quarter of this year, according to the Web site. Deneb processors running from 2.6GHz to 3.0GHz will have a thermal envelope of 125 watts.
Other Deneb processors, with a thermal envelope of 95 watts, are due in the first quarter of 2009. These will have core clock speeds between 2.4GHz and 2.8GHz, according to HKEPC.
All Deneb processors will have prodigious amounts of cache memory to speed performance. Some are listed with 6MB of level-3 cache memory and 2MB of level-2 cache.
Processors dubbed Propus will have smaller amounts of cache memory: typically 2MB of level-2 cache only. The Propus EE processors will have thermal envelopes as low as 45 watts and 2MB level-3 cache memory, according to HKEPC. These will go into production in the first and second quarters, the Web site reported.
Advanced Micro Devices has its eye on the ultra-low-cost notebook market. Dirk Meyer--the company's new CEO--and other executives discussed this and ways to make the company profitable during the company's earnings conference call Thursday.
HP 2133 Mini-Note is a low-cost ultramobile notebook--a market AMD is eying.
(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)Meyer--promoted to CEO on Thursday--made it clear that AMD is serious about the so-called Netbook market, where Intel's Atom processor has been the most successful so far. (Though Intel CEO Paul Otellini made a perplexing comment Tuesday about the Atom processor.)
Netbooks have two hallmarks: they are typically under $400 and are extremely small and light. The Asus Eee PC is the most popular Netbook currently.
In response to a question from an analyst, Meyer implied that while AMD is not interested in the mobile Internet device market (think: iPhone), it is serious about low-cost notebooks.
"We're a much smaller company with not nearly the scale that our competitor has," Meyer said. "We don't intend to try to do absolutely everything they do in the marketplace. (But) slightly smaller form factor notebooks and inexpensive notebooks. That is a market segment that we're interested in."
AMD is already taking concrete steps to get into this market.
"It's actually a segment that we're starting to offer products to our customers in support of now," Meyer said. "We actually haven't talked in public about that, but I expect we'll be talking about that roadmap when we get together in November at our analyst conference."
Meyer and other executives also addressed upcoming 45-nanometer processors, new graphics chips, and the so-called "asset-lite" strategy as ways to bring the company back to profitability.
Chief Financial Officer Bob Rivet said upcoming 45-nanometer processors and the eventual outsourcing of more production to companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will be the keys to long-term sustained profitability.
"Our strategy to continue to execute on 45 nanometer improves our cost structure," Rivet said. He added that improving profitability also "does incorporate asset-smart (and) execution by Hector (Ruiz) to bring it to conclusion." Analysts refer to the outsourcing strategy as asset-lite, AMD refers to it also as "asset-smart." Outgoing CEO Hector Ruiz will stay on to execute the asset-lite strategy.
Rivet later added that asset-lite "will be a major reformation of the company."
On upcoming 45-nanometer production, Meyer said: "We're well on track with the 45-nanometer plan. We actually started production late last quarter and on track to begin volume shipment early in Q4." AMD currently uses a 65-nanometer manufacturing process for most of its silicon. Intel, on the other hand, has been shipping 45-nanometer processors since last year and its newest Centrino 2 processors are made on a 45-nanometer process.
New graphics chips will also help, according to Rivet. "The new 4800 series will be the best products in the marketplace. (This) will definitely contribute to gross margin," he said. AMD is struggling to get the all-important financial benchmark of gross margin to above 40 percent. It is now at 37 percent. By comparison, Intel's gross margin was just below 56 percent in the second quarter.
About profitability in general, Rivet said: "Since we're so far away from profitability. The first order of magnitude is operating profit at the operating income level not at the net income level. First get to that level then we'll work to get the net," he said. Rivet said AMD will show an operating profit in the second half.
Intel's newest Core 2 Duo processor has finally found its way into most models in the world's two largest PC makers' notebook lines.
With some exceptions. Hewlett-Packard (HP) will offer the 45-nanometer Penryn processor for the first time in its 8700 performance line in the next two weeks.
HP 8700 performance series will get Penryn chip upgrade in the coming weeks.
(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)Intel's 45nm Core 2 Duo Penryn processor was announced back in January as a significant upgrade from the previous "Merom" 65nm processors. Penryn boasts improved power saving features and generally better (though not phenomenally) performance at the same clock speed due, among other things, to a larger cache memory. On certain multimedia tasks, there is up to a 40 percent improvement in applications using Penryn's new SSE4 instructions.
Dell's newest Penryn-based offerings include Latitude and Precision notebooks, which are business and engineering lines respectively. Dell is already offering Penryn on its consumer line of notebooks, including the Inspiron and XPS lines. Certain high-end XPS models on Dell's Web site, such as the XPS M1730, can be configured with Penryn processors only. One M1730 SKU offers Penryn T9300 (2.5GHz), T9500 (2.6GHz), and X9000 (2.8GHz) chips only.
One of the notable exceptions is the low-end Dell Vostro line which offers only the older line of Core 2 Duo processors and AMD's Turion 64 X2 chip.
While HP was very quick to bring Penryn to its consumer and business lines, there are only limited processor selections in its business line. The HP 6510, 6710, 6720, and 6820 models offer either the Penryn T8100 or T8300, according to HP spokesperson Mike Hockey. But online configuration options are not offered with faster Penryn chips.
The HP 8700 performance line, which includes mobile workstation models, does not offer the Penryn chip yet. This is expected to change in the next week or so when HP, for the first time, includes configurations with the processor, Hockey said.
As expected, Dell is now offering Inspiron notebook PCs with the Intel Core 2 Duo "Penryn" chip as an optional configuration. This is the first time that Dell has included the 45-nanometer processor as an option in the consumer-oriented Inspiron line.
Dell Inspiron 1420
(Credit: Dell)An Inspiron 1720 with a T9300 (2.5GHz, 6MB cache) processor, 17-inch (1440x900) screen, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, 2GB shared dual channel DDR2 memory, and a 250GB SATA hard drive (5400RPM) is priced at $1,299.
An Inspiron 1420 with a T8300 (2.4GHz, 3MB cache) processor, 14.1-inch (1280x900) screen, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, 2GB shared dual channel DDR2 memory, and a 160GB SATA hard drive (5400RPM) is priced at $1,024.
For an extra $200, a 256MB Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT video card is available with the 1720. On the 1420, a 128MB Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS is available for an additional $100.
Launched last month, Intel's 45-nanometer mobile processors generally pack around 400 million transistors. One of the most salient features is the larger cache. The higher-end processors integrate 6MB of cache memory versus 4MB for the older 65-nanometer "Merom" generation, and the lower-end chips integrate 3MB vs. 2MB for the Merom-class processors. A larger cache generally means better performance.
Dell's XPS M1330 uses the Penryn chip.
(Credit: Dell Computer)Dell is in the process of updating its notebook line with Intel's newest 45-nanometer mobile processors. As reported earlier this week, Dell indicated it would refresh its lineup with Intel "Penryn" processors.
This comes as Dell moves much of its AMD-based lineup to retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Staples.
Dell will offer the Penryn processors in its Inspiron and XPS lines, according to a Dell spokesperson. One of the first U.S. models is already available online. The XPS M1330 can be configured with a Core 2 Duo T9500 (2.6GHz, 6MB cache), 2GB of memory, Intel X3100 graphics, and a 120GB hard drive. The system is priced at $1,674. The same basic configuration with a T8300 chip (2.4GHz, 3MB cache), drops the price to $1,274.
Dell, in the coming weeks, will also offer Inspiron models with the new Intel processor.
Though announced in early January, Penryn-based mobile systems are just now starting to hit the market in volume. For example, Toshiba announced this week a 4.6-pound, 13-inch form-factor model, the U305-S2816, that uses the Penryn T8100 (2.1GHz, 3MB cache). It starts at $1,349.99. And Hewlett-Packard bulked up its consumer notebook lines with Penryn-based models last week.
The simultaneous introduction of new Penryn-based models and the repositioning of some AMD-based notebooks from Dell's online store to retailers such as Wal-Mart and Staples is coincidence and not related, said Anne Camden, a Dell spokesperson. She also said that models in the Inspiron, Vostro, and Latitude notebook lines are available currently with AMD processors.
At retail, at least, AMD has a strong presence. For instance, of the seven Dell systems and package deals listed on Wal-Mart's Web site, only one of them is Intel-based. The rest are AMD. The question is whether a retail-heavy presence--where profit margins are typically thin--bodes well for AMD or not.
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