Intel has been deep diving on its upcoming 18A chip node on the VLSI Symposium in Japan. And if the corporate’s claims are to be believed, 18A is wanting fairly candy. Amongst different factoids, Intel says it is both as much as 25% quicker on the similar energy stage, or as much as 38% extra environment friendly on the similar frequency in contrast with the Intel 3 node. That is very promising for laptop computer battery life specifically.
In fact, Intel 3 is a node of which we have now completely zero expertise. That is as a result of Intel has by no means used Intel 3 for a client chip, selecting as a substitute to go along with TSMC’s N3 node for each its Lunar Lake laptop computer chip and newest Arrow Lake desktop and cellular CPU household, as used for the Intel Core Extremely 9 285K.
Probably the most superior Intel node within the PC is Intel 7, which is a rebrand of Intel’s notorious 10nm know-how, which ended up arriving the higher a part of a decade late. Anyway, what to make of those claims from Intel?
Particularly and in comparison with Intel 3, Intel says that in low voltage 0.65 V operation, 18A is both 18% quicker or 38% extra environment friendly, whereas in excessive voltage 1.1 V mode, it is 25% quicker or 36% extra environment friendly. In different phrases, in low voltage mode you’ll be able to both run the identical clock velocity as Intel 3 and use 38% much less energy, or use the identical energy and revel in 18% quicker clocks.
In the meantime, within the excessive efficiency, excessive voltage mode, you’ll be able to select between both 25% greater clocks for a similar energy consumption as Intel 3 or the identical clocks with 36% decrease consumption.
Any method you slice it, these are very good numbers. It is simply exhausting to attract too many conclusions given the shortage of comparable Intel chips on the Intel 3 node. For now, it is solely the Xeon 6 Granite Rapids server CPU, launched earlier this yr, that is constructed on Intel 3.
Furthermore, the truth that Intel handed over Intel 3 for Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake hardly looks as if a vote of confidence in its personal manufacturing tech. The purpose being that Intel additionally made some bullish claims about Intel 3 and an 18% performance-per-watt improve over Intel 4, however it looks as if we’ll by no means get an Intel 3 chip in a PC.
What’s extra, even when these claims are correct, there’s the query of yields. Can Intel really produce 18A chips at scale? Solutions to all these questions will presumably come later this yr when the Panther Lake cellular CPU with an 18A CPU die is meant to be launched.
If Intel’s numbers are correct, Panther Lake should be a way more environment friendly laptop computer CPU, enabling clearly improved battery life. No less than, that is in comparison with Intel 3. Precisely how 18A compares with TSMC N3, which is the node utilized by Intel for Lunar Lake’s CPU cores is a separate matter.
The takeaway right here, then, is that that is all very sophisticated. Intel has launched some very promising numbers. However they contain comparability with one other Intel node which itself is simply out there in a spread of server chips and it is unclear how 18A stacks up in opposition to TSMC’s competing know-how.
The proof will likely be within the processing, so to talk, when Panther Lake arrives on the finish of this yr. It has been a very long time coming, however no CPU has ever felt as important for Intel as Panther Lake.
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