Intel Microarchitecture Overview
Intel provides numerous micro-architectures and CPUs. This article gives an overview about them.
Intel Tick-Tock Development Model
Intel developed microarchitectures until 2015 according to the "tick-tock" model:[1][2]
- shrinking of process technology of the previous micro-architecture (Tick)
- new micro-architecture (Tock)
Intel Process-Architecture-Optimization Development Model
The tick-tock model, which has been in use for more than a decade, is no longer sustainable, as Intel announced in summer 2015. That's why since 2016, a "process architecture optimization" model has been developed.[3] This transition to a three-stage phase means that three generations of processors are based on a single process architecture, instead of two generations as before. The additional step Optimization focuses entirely on optimizations in the architecture.
Architecture and CPU Overview since Skylake architecture
The following table shows an overview of the different architectures with the respective processors, starting from Skylake: [4]
Intel Skylake microarchitecture (Supermicro X11-Boards) |
Intel Icelake microarchitecture | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
code name | Skylake | Kaby Lake | Coffee Lake | Coffee Lake Refresh | Cooper Lake | Cannonlake | Icelake | Tigerlake | |
tick/tock or Process/Architecture/Optimization | new micro- architekture Tock |
Optimization | Optimization | Optimization | Optimization | Process | Architecture | Optimization | |
process technology | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 10nm | 10nm | 10nm | |
CPU code name | |||||||||
Desktop | Extreme / High-End / Performance |
Skylake |
Kaby Lake |
Coffee Lake |
Coffee Lake Refresh[6] | ||||
Mainstream | Skylake |
Kaby Lake |
Coffee Lake |
||||||
Mobile | Skylake |
Kaby Lake |
Coffee Lake |
Whiskey Lake U partially with side-channel HW mitigation[7] |
i3-8121U[9] | ||||
Server | Scalable Processor (SP) (2+ Socket) |
Skylake Intel Xeon Scalable Processors [10] Platinum 81xx Gold 61xx Gold 51xx Silver 41xx Bronze 31xx (LGA 3647) |
- | - | Cascade Lake SP 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors [11] Platinum 82xx Gold 62xx Gold 52xx Silver 42xx Bronze 32xx (LGA 3647) with side-channel HW mititagtion and AVX512_VNNI[12] [13] |
Cooper Lake SP (LGA 4189) -> new HW-platform, by end of 2019[13] |
Ice Lake SP (LGA 4189) approx. mid 2020[14] |
||
Entry (EN) (1 Socket) |
Skylake E3-15xx v5 E3-12xx v5 (LGA 1151) |
Kaby Lake E3-12xx v6 (LGA 1151) |
Coffee Lake E-21xx (LGA 1151) |
Architecture and CPU Overview until Broadwell architecture
The following table shows an overview about the different architectures and their CPUs until Broadwell:[15]
Intel Core microarchitecture (Supermicro X7 motherboards) |
Intel Nehalem microarchitecture (Supermicro X8 motherboards) |
Intel Sandy Bridge microarchitecture (Supermicro X9 motherboards) |
Intel Haswell microarchitecture (Supermicro X10 motherboards) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
code name | Merom | Penryn | Nehalem | Westmere | Sandy Bridge | Ivy Bridge | Haswell | Broadwell | |
tick/tock | new micro- architecture Tock |
new process- technology Tick |
new micro- architecture Tock |
new process- technology Tick |
new micro- architecture Tock |
new process- technology Tick |
new micro- architecture Tock |
new process- technology Tick | |
process technology | 65nm | 45nm | 45nm | 32nm | 32nm | 22nm | 22nm | 14nm | |
CPU code name | |||||||||
Desktop | Extreme / High-End / Performance |
Bloomfield (4 Cores) Core i7-9xx |
Gulftown (6 Cores) Core i7-9xx |
Sandy Bridge Core i5-23xx Core i5-24xx Core i5-25xx Core i7-26xx (LGA 1155) Core i7-38xx Core i7-39xx (LGA2011) |
Ivy Bridge Core i7-37xx (LGA 1155) |
Haswell Core i7-47xx (LGA 1150) | |||
Mainstream | Kentsfield (4 Cores) |
Yorkfield (4 Cores) |
Lynnfield (4 Cores) Core i5-7xx Core i7-8xx |
Clarkdale (2 Cores + iGFX) Celeron G1xxx Pentium G6xxx Core i3-5xx Core i5-6xx |
Sandy Bridge Pentium G6xx Pentium G8xx Core i3-21xx (LGA 1155) |
Ivy Bridge Core i3-32xx Core i5-33xx Core i5-34xx Core i5-35xx (LGA 1155) |
Haswell Core i5-46xx Core i5-45xx Core i5-44xx Core i3-43xx Core i3-41xx Pentium G3xxx (LGA 1150) | ||
Mobile | Clarksfield (4 Cores) Core i7-7xxQM Core i7-8xxQM Core i7-9xxXM |
Arrandale (2 Cores + iGFX) Core i3-3xx Core i5-4xx Core i5-5xx Core i7-6xx |
Sandy Bridge Celeron B8xx Core i3-23xx Core i5-24xx Core i5-25xx Core i7-26xx Core i7-27xx Core i7-28xx Core i7-29xx |
Ivy Bridge Core i5-32xx Core i5-33xx Core i7-35xx Core i7-36xx Core i7-37xx Core i7-38xx |
Haswell Core i7-49xx Extreme Core i7-49xx Core i7-48xx Core i7-47xx Core i7-46xx Core i7-45xx Core i5-43xx Core i5-42xx Core i3-41xx Core i3-40xx | ||||
Server | Expandable Scalable (EX) (4+ Socket) |
Tigerton (2 oder 4 Cores) Xeon 72xx Xeon 73xx |
Dunnington (4 oder 6 Cores) Xeon 74xx |
Nehalem-EX (Beckton) (4, 6 or 8 Cores) Xeon 65xx Xeon 75xx |
Westmere-EX (6, 8 or 10 Cores) Xeon E7-28xx Xeon E7-48xx Xeon E7-88xx (LGA 1567) |
||||
Efficient Performance (EP) (2+ Socket) |
Woodcrest (2 Cores) Xeon 51xx Clovertown (4 Cores) (Xeon 53xx) |
Wolfdale DP (2 Cores) Xeon 52xx Harpertown (4 Cores) (Xeon 54xx) |
Nehalem-EP (Gainestown) (4C Cores) Xeon 55xx |
Westmere-EP[16] (6 Cores) Xeon 56xx |
Sandy Bridge Xeon E5-24xx (Sandy Bridge-EN, LGA1356) Xeon E5-26xx (Sandy Bridge-EP, LGA2011) Xeon E5-46xx (Sandy Bridge-EP, LGA2011) |
Ivy Bridge Xeon E5-26xx v2 Xeon E5-16xx v2 (LGA 2011) |
Haswell Xeon E5-26xx v3 (LGA 2011-3) | ||
Entry (EN) (1 Socket) |
Kentsfield (4 Cores) Xeon 32xx |
Yorkfield (4 Cores) Xeon 33xx |
Lynnfield (4 Cores) Xeon 34xx Bloomfield (4 Cores) Xeon W35xx |
Clarkdale (2 Cores + iGFX) Xeon L340x Gulftown (6 Cores) Xeon 36xx |
Sandy Bridge Xeon E3-12xx (LGA 1155) |
Ivy Bridge Xeon E3-12xx v2[17] (LGA 1155) |
Haswell Xeon E3-12xx v3 (LGA 1150) |
System-on-a-Chip Architectures
In the area of energy-saving soldered processors (SoC, System-on-a-Chip), Intel offers the following architectures:[18]
Bay Trail | Cherry Trail | Braswell | Apollo Lake | Gemini Lake | Elkhart Lake[19] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Introduction | 2013 | 2015 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | (follows) |
Microarchitecture | Silvermont | Airmont | Airmont | Goldmont | Goldmont+ | Tremont |
Celeron Examples | J1900
N2930 |
- | J3160 | N3450 | N4000
N4100 |
n/a |
Pentium Examples | J2900 | - | N3160 | N4200 | N5000 | n/a |
Atom Examples | E3845
E3905 |
x5-Z8300 | x5-E8000 | x5-E3930 | - | n/a |
References
- ↑ Intel’s Tick Tock Model (intel.com)
- ↑ Intel Tick-Tock (en.wikipedia.org)
- ↑ Intel verabschiedet sich vom Tick-Tock-Modell (golem.de, 23.03.2016)
- ↑ Intel Roadmap Overview Sept 22nd, 2009 (intel.com)
- ↑ Intel Delays Mass Production of 10 nm CPUs to 2019 (anandtech.com, 27.04.2018) [...] Intel plans to release another generation of products made using its 14 nm process tech. This generation of chips includes Whiskey Lake products for client PCs and Cascade Lake for the datacenter, and both are scheduled for release later this year.
- ↑ The Intel 9th Gen Review: Core i9-9900K, Core i7-9700K and Core i5-9600K Tested (www.anandtech.com, 19.10.2018)
- ↑ Spectre and Meltdown in Hardware: Intel Clarifies Whiskey Lake and Amber Lake (anandtech.com, 30.08.2018)
- ↑ HP Leaks Whiskey Lake-U CPU Specs (tomshardware.com, 08.08.2018)
- ↑ Erste Cannon-Lake-CPU: Intels Core i3-8121U und m3-8114Y in 10 nm (heise.de, 16.05.2018)
- ↑ Intels Xeon-Prozessorfamilie Skylake-SP läuft vom Stapel: Erste Benchmark-Ergebnisse gegen AMD Epyc (heise.de, 11.07.2017)
- ↑ Cascade Lake: Intel bringt neue Xeon-SP-Prozessoren mit bis zu 56 Kernen und 400 Watt TDP (heise.de, 02.04.2019)
- ↑ Intel at Hot Chips 2018: Showing the Ankle of Cascade Lake (anandtech.com, 19.08.2018)
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Intel Server Roadmap: 14nm Cooper Lake in 2019, 10nm Ice Lake in 2020 (anandtech.com, 08.08.2018)
- ↑ An Interview with Lisa Spelman, VP of Intel’s DCG: Discussing Cooper Lake and Smeltdown (anandtech.com, 15.08.2018)So when we say Cooper will start shipping in 2019 and then Ice Lake as a ‘fast follow-on’, rather than think of Ice Lake as a 12-18 month cadence you should think of it as much shorter than that. We’re talking the middle of 2020.
- ↑ Intel Roadmap Overview Sept 22nd, 2009 (intel.com)
- ↑ Intel: Prozessorupgrade auf sechs Kerne für Server und Workstations (heise.de, 16.03.2010)
- ↑ Intel stellt Xeon E3-1200 v2 Serie vor (tecchannel.de, 14.05.2012)
- ↑ Kaufberatung: sparsame Mini-PCs für Netzwerk-Aufgaben (c't Magazin 4/2019, Seite 146
- ↑ Intel Elkhart Lake: Neue Atom-Generation mit Tremont und Gen11-Grafik (www.computerbase.de, 14.03.2019)
Additional Information
- List of Intel CPU microarchitectures(en.wikipedia.org)
- NetBurst (microarchitecture), predecessor of the Intel Core microarchitecture (en.wikipedia.org)
- Haswell (microarchitecture), successor of the Intel Sandy Bridge microarchitecture) (en.wikipedia.org)
- IDF in Peking: Mehr Details zu Intels Prozessorgeneration Sandy Bridge (heise.de, 13.04.2010)
- Intels nächste Server-Chipsätze mit SAS-6G-RAID-Adaptern (heise.de, 08.10.2010)
Author: Werner Fischer Werner Fischer, working in the Knowledge Transfer team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his studies of Computer and Media Security at FH Hagenberg in Austria. He is a regular speaker at many conferences like LinuxTag, OSMC, OSDC, LinuxCon, and author for various IT magazines. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and training for a good result at the annual Linz marathon relay.
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