- Apr 18, 2015
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My understanding of CPU micro-architecture is admittedly limited, but this thought occurred to me recently.
Is simultaneous multi-threading a more efficient approach to maximizing thread count on a transistor budget and keeping IPC about the same?
Consider 8 thread Ryzen 1400(quad core SMT). What if they were able to design 6-8 individual cores that were slightly smaller and narrower single threaded with similar IPC, instead of 4 larger wider SMT cores on the same transistor budget.
Would single thread IPC be directly sacrificed as a result of making the cores smaller and narrower of resources?
I'm not sure if I'm explaining my line of thought well enough, or if my lack of understanding is blatantly obvious.
In the most basic sense I ask, why design a core so full of resources that it is most efficient when processing 2 threads at a time(1 much weaker than the othe) rather than a core designed to maximize 1 thread at a time but smaller, leaner and able to fit more of these on a similar die?
Is simultaneous multi-threading a more efficient approach to maximizing thread count on a transistor budget and keeping IPC about the same?
Consider 8 thread Ryzen 1400(quad core SMT). What if they were able to design 6-8 individual cores that were slightly smaller and narrower single threaded with similar IPC, instead of 4 larger wider SMT cores on the same transistor budget.
Would single thread IPC be directly sacrificed as a result of making the cores smaller and narrower of resources?
I'm not sure if I'm explaining my line of thought well enough, or if my lack of understanding is blatantly obvious.
In the most basic sense I ask, why design a core so full of resources that it is most efficient when processing 2 threads at a time(1 much weaker than the othe) rather than a core designed to maximize 1 thread at a time but smaller, leaner and able to fit more of these on a similar die?