Alder Lake S: Intel confirms x86 hybrid cores for desktop CPUs

Intel has Linux patch clarified that Alder Lake S will use hybrid x86 CPU cores. This chip is scheduled for 2022 at the earliest and is intended to combine eight performance cores with eight economical cores. So far, this approach has only been implemented at Lakefield (test) for ultrabooks, but very convincing there.

Job market

1. operational services GmbH & Co. KG, Wolfsburg
2. DIgSILENT GmbH, Gomaringen

The basic idea has long been known from ARM-based chips for smartphones, where it was introduced as Big / Litte and later continued as Dynamiq. Intel’s Lakefield in turn combines a Sunny Cove core with four Tremont cores including a graphics unit in one die, an I / O chip and several layers of LPDDR4X RAM. Eight core and eight atomic cores are to be used for Alder Lake S, a combination of the upcoming Golden Cove and the future Gracemont would be conceivable.

Using two different microarchitectures has significant advantages, but requires an appropriate scheduler. From the hardware to the firmware to the operating system, all the adjustment screws have to mesh, otherwise the heterogeneous design will fail. At Lakefield this is already working well: Responsive workloads such as starting applications or editing photos are handled by the individual performance core. For longer tasks such as ray tracing rendering, the four economical atomic cores start up.

• 

Roadmap for core and atom architectures (Image: Intel)

Only the top model from Alder Lake S is equipped with large and small cores: Intel speaks of an 8 + 8 + 1 design, i.e. eight core and eight Atom cores and a GT1 graphics unit. The thermal power loss (PL1) should be 125 watts, up to 150 watts are being investigated as an option. Another version of the design should be operated with 80 watts, and there should also be a classic 6-core processor without atomic cores. Alder Lake S will use the LGA 1700 socket, the chips will be manufactured in a 10 nm process.