Processor architectures

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Revision as of 11:16, 2 October 2012

Intel processors

Current architecture: SandBridge and its sucessors (IvyBridge) Next architecture: Haswell (by March 2013)

New manycore architecture: Intel MIC (Many Integrated Core) Products: Knights Ferry , Knights Corner (Xeon Phi, 2012), Knights Landing

Intel uses Tick-Tock principle for the developing cycle of their processors. "Tick-Tock" is a model adopted Intel since 2007 to follow every microarchitectural change with a die shrink of the process technology. Every "tick" is a shrinking of process technology of the previous microarchitecture and every "tock" is a new microarchitecture. Every year, there is expected to be one tick or tock.

SandyBridge architecture

Sandy Bridge is a microprocessor architecture developed by Intel for central processing units in computers to replace the Nehalem microarchitecture. Intel demonstrated a Sandy Bridge processor in 2009, and released first products based on the architecture in January 2011 under the Core brand.

Sandy Bridge processors are originally produced in 32nm technology, while subsequent products, Ivy Bridge processors, use 22nm technology. Main advantages include:

• 32KB data + 32KB instruction L1 cache and 256KB L2 cache per core
• Shared L3 cache includes the processor graphics
• 64-byte CPU cache line size
• Two load/store operations per CPU cycle for each memory channel
• Decoded micro-operation cache and enlarged, optimized branch predictor
• Improved performance for criptography
• 256-bit/cycle ring bus interconnect between cores, graphics, cache and System Agent Domain
• Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) 256-bit instruction set with wider vectors, new extensible syntax and rich functionality
• Intel Quick Sync Video, hardware support for video encoding and decoding
• Up to 8 physical cores or 16 logical cores through Hyper-threading

Haswell architecture

Haswell is a microprocessor architecture developed as the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture. Haswell will be the first processor to be designed from the ground up to fully optimize the power savings and performance benefits from the move to 3D or tri-gate transistors on the 22nm process node. Haswell will also increase the perfromance of integrated GPU bringing it closely to those of $50 - $70 graphics cards.

Main improvements include:

• Haswell New Instructions (includes Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (AVX2), gather, bit manipulation, and FMA3 support)
• New sockets — LGA 1150 for desktops and rPGA947 & BGA1364 for the mobile market
• Intel Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX)
• Three versions of the integrated GPU
• Graphics support in hardware for Direct3D 11.1 and OpenGL 4.0
• DDR4 for the enterprise/server variant (Haswell-EX)
• Variable Base clock like LGA 2011
• A new cache design
• 128-byte CPU cache line size
• New advanced power-saving system
• Up to 32MB Unified cache LLC (Last Level Cache)

Future architectures

Broadwell will be the 14nm shrink of the Haswell architecture. Broadwell will adopt the Multi-Chip Package (MCP) design, so that could mean that Haswell motherboards might not be compatible with Broadwell motherboards.

Skylake is the codename for a processor microarchitecture to be developed by Intel as the successor to the Haswell architecture. Skylake will use a 14 nm process. Skymont will be the 10 nm shrink of Skylake and is due out the year after the introduction of the Skylake microarchitecture.

Many Integrated Cores (MIC)

Intel Many Integrated Core Architecture or Intel MIC is a multiprocessor computer architecture developed by Intel. The Intel Many Integrated Core architecture brings an SMP programming environment onto a single chip. A co-processor, code-named Knights Corner will be the first Intel product using the Intel MIC architecture. A prototype, called Knights Ferry, was offered as a PCIe card with 32 in-order cores at up to 1.2 GHz with 4 threads per core, 2 GB GDDR5 memory, and 8 MB coherent L2 cache (256 kB per core with 32 kB L1 cache),and a power requirement of ~300 W,built at a 45 nm process.

NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units

NVIDIA gave preview of its new generation of GPU arhictecture in GTC 2012 conference, San Jose, California. The new GPU architecture is called Kepler. There are two different Kepler GPUs in development. The Kepler1 (GK104) chip, also known as , is aimed at graphics cards and Tesla GPU coprocessors, where single-precision floating point math is what matters most. Kepler2 (GK110) GPUs will be tuned for double-precision floating point math and will support more GDDR5 memory with ECC support. Kepler2 will have different packaging aimed at servers, and will cost more money than Tesla cards based on the Kepler1 units. Nvidia increased the core counts and slowed down the clock speeds, increasing the parallelism and the overall performance of GPU while significantly lowering its power draw and heat dissipation.

New features:

• New SMX (Streaming Multiprocessor eXtreme) architecture with 192 CUDA cores per multiprocesor
• The core speed is 1006MHz, with turbo boost option allowing 1058MHz
• About three times better performance per watt of power consumption
• New Hyper-Q technology that enables multiple MPI tasks to run in parallel on the GPU (up to 32 MPI tasks)
• Dynamic parallelism - GPU can adapt to data and one kernel can dynamically launch another kernel.