Question Is it possible to apply efficiency gains and performance gains to separate parts of an SoC ?

[FlameTail]

Let's say I make a hypothetical smartphone SoC called 'Flame 1' on the 7nm Node.

Then I introduce the 'Flame 2' SoC which is identical to the Flame1 in every way (same cpu, same gpu, same npu), except that it is built on the newer 7nm+ node.

Now let's say the 7nm+ Node give x% more performance OR y% more efficiency than 7nm.

So can I apply the performance improvement of the new Node to part of the SoC ( eg : CPU ) and apply the efficiency improvement to another component ( eg: GPU ) of the same SoC ? Is this possible ?

 

[Hougy]

You can by choosing a high clock for the CPU and a low clock for the GPU

 

[turtile]

Let's say I make a hypothetical smartphone SoC called 'Flame 1' on the 7nm Node.

Then I introduce the 'Flame 2' SoC which is identical to the Flame1 in every way (same cpu, same gpu, same npu), except that it is built on the newer 7nm+ node.

Now let's say the 7nm+ Node give x% more performance OR y% more efficiency than 7nm.

So can I apply the performance improvement of the new Node to part of the SoC ( eg : CPU ) and apply the efficiency improvement to another component ( eg: GPU ) of the same SoC ? Is this possible ?

I have no idea about different design rules on one chip but this can easily be done with chiplets.

 

[Thala]

Let's say I make a hypothetical smartphone SoC called 'Flame 1' on the 7nm Node.

Then I introduce the 'Flame 2' SoC which is identical to the Flame1 in every way (same cpu, same gpu, same npu), except that it is built on the newer 7nm+ node.

Now let's say the 7nm+ Node give x% more performance OR y% more efficiency than 7nm.

So can I apply the performance improvement of the new Node to part of the SoC ( eg : CPU ) and apply the efficiency improvement to another component ( eg: GPU ) of the same SoC ? Is this possible ?

You control whether you want better performance or power via voltage and clock. So assuming you have different voltage and clock domains in your SoC - you can decide per domain.

 

[Tup3x]

Let's say I make a hypothetical smartphone SoC called 'Flame 1' on the 7nm Node.

Then I introduce the 'Flame 2' SoC which is identical to the Flame1 in every way (same cpu, same gpu, same npu), except that it is built on the newer 7nm+ node.

Now let's say the 7nm+ Node give x% more performance OR y% more efficiency than 7nm.

So can I apply the performance improvement of the new Node to part of the SoC ( eg : CPU ) and apply the efficiency improvement to another component ( eg: GPU ) of the same SoC ? Is this possible ?

In that case you'd clock the CPU part higher (get more performance at same power) and keep the GPU part as is (same performance, lower power).