Intel Architecture Day 2020: Tiger Lake, Alder Lake, Discrete GPUs, and More

takyon writes:

Intel shared a number of product announcements at its Intel Architecture Day 2020, and later, at Hot Chips 2020.

Intel's upcoming "Tiger Lake" mobile processors will improve performance with "Willow Cove" cores (a small IPC gain from "Sunny Cove", but higher clock speeds), and feature Intel Xe integrated graphics with up to 96 execution units. The chips use an upgraded "10nm" process Intel calls "10nm SuperFin", indicating improvements to the FinFET transistor technology. Intel claims this is the "largest single intranode enhancement in Intel history", with a 17-18% transistor performance jump from their original "10nm" node (and most elusive one?).

Intel's Alder Lake hybrid/heterogeneous desktop CPUs are set to be released in 2021. These will use a big/small core configuration that first appeared in Intel's Lakefield, and is similar to ARM's big.LITTLE (which was redesigned for more flexibility as DynamIQ). Alder Lake will use big "Golden Cove" cores which are the successor to Sunny/Willow Cove, and "Gracemont" Atom cores. Leaks point to configurations topping out at "8+8" (8 big cores, 8 small cores).

Intel plans to launch a high-performance discrete "Xe-HPG" GPU for gamers in 2021, but will use a third-party fab to build it. The GPUs will support real-time ray-tracing, like Nvidia and AMD's next-generation GPUs. Leaks indicate that TSMC will build the GPUs, using a "6nm" node.

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