- Dec 25, 2013
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Significant leaks: Intel working on true 3D packaging and Raja wants to enter dGPU "with a bang"
Ashraf Eassa, long-time Intel analyst at The Motley Fool (https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool), has become known for his reputation as being one of the most trustworthy and consistent leakers of insider information from Intel, such as code names.
Among other things, in the last half a year, he was the first (but sadly the tech press has not yet caught up to any of this information nor given him the credits he deserves) to tell us about Whiskey Lake (and that it's 14++), Alder Lake, Monette Hill, Lakefield being big.little Core/Atom mashup, that the first 10nm Cannon Lake part having been PRQ'd is a 2+0 SKU, Arctic Sound (Gen12) and Jupiter Sound (Gen13) dGPUs, Meteor Lake (7nm), Granite Rapids (7nm), Raja making changes to Arctic Sound to make it more competitive for gaming, Intel working on CUDA competitor for release this year, Arctic Sound using chiplets and Intel making a dedicated ASIC for inference. (If you want a source for any of these, feel free to ask.)
Now, he has leaked a few little more tidbits for you to enjoy.
The leaks
More specifically, on the CPU side, he confirms that Icelake-SP is still targeted for 2019 (last year D. Schor said May'19) and Sappire Rapids is still targeted for 2020 (a roadmap two years ago suggested mid-'20). As Intel said, there will be 3 gens of 10nm (with ICL being 10+ and SPR being 10++). Given Intel's yearly cadence, by the way, this implies 7nm (Granite Rapids) is still planned for 2021. (Intel's annual report suggested Intel has already started working on Fab 42 in 2017.)
Further, Intel has put Lakefield's power management in Tiger Lake for very low standby of 9mW, something Apple execs (who are likely familiar with iPhone's feeds and speeds) were "surprised" with.
Next, on the packaging side, Ashraf has come with the major scoop that Intel is working on a 3D packaging technology called Fevoros, which will be able to package "smaller dies together as well as 3D stacking". It will be used post-Sapphire Rapids (so starting with 7nm Granite Rapids); EMIB will be used until SPR.
For some context as to what this significant news implies. It will be the successor of EMIB. EMIB is a 2.5D packaging technology that allowed for connecting dies (that are within um next to each other) with a low-power and very high-bandwidth interconnect (potentially over 4TB/s). EMIB's claim to fame and differentiator compared to the competition is that it doesn't use a very big (expensive) interposer, nor does it use yield-destroying TSVs (through silicon vias), but just a small embedded bridge in the package (as the name implies obviously).
Now, I have to say 3D stacking is already done: it is used in HBM. But as everyone knows Intel is not a DRAM manufacturer, so this implies that Intel is going to 3D stack logic dies (or 3D XPoint?). This would be a first. Everyone in the industry is interested in how well cooling of 3D stacked logic dies will go.
I would guess that this will be an extension of EMIB: Intel is working on multiple generations of EMIB, for instance we know Falcon Mesa will use EMIB2, which will shrink the bump pitch to 35um from 55um for 2.5x the bandwidth, and Intel has previously said they were seeing as low as 10um in the labs.
Finally, on the GPU side of things, Ashraf has given a few more details about Arctic Sound (10++ Gen12 based, the GPU architecture that will be in Tiger Lake). He says Arctic Sound was initially targeted as an accelerator in the data center for "video streaming apps". (We know Intel is fully embracing the heterogeneous future of compute, with things like FPGAs, training and inference ASICs and GPUs.) With Raja on board, Arctic Sound has been "split into two", with the second side of the coin being the gaming market. He is said he wants to "enter the market with a bang". So it is obvious Intel will be giving NVIDIA a hard time (which is necessary because NVIDIA is doing very well wrt execution), bringing significant competition to the market.
Arctic Sound is targeted for PRQ in H1'20 (which in any case implies a 2020 launch). He also says it will consist of an MCP with up to 4 dies. (I assume these chiplets will be connected via EMIB, since that's the only thing that would be feasible.)
Now, the interesting bit here is that he says they're targeting Jupiter Sound to have leadership (i.e. >NVIDIA) performance/watt "under 60W". Now, 60W doesn't sound very high-end to me, but given that they're going the MCP route, I'd presume the 60W is for just one chiplet. So if one extrapolates to 4 chiplets, that makes for a high-end (leadership) product of 240W of 7nm Gen13 goodiness in 2021.
To end, he also notes Knights Crest will be fabbed in-house, but everyone had thought that already. But Intel is also working on a dedicated DL chip for inference called Spring Hill.
Sources
He has not disclosed his sources, but he often has multiple independent ones and he has a good track record.
1. Arctic Sound PRQ=H1'20, targeting perf/watt leadership under 60W
2. Knights Crest will be in-house fabbed (that Spring Crest is TSMC was already known)
3. Intel's DL inference ASIC (was already known Intel was working on this based on job postings) called Spring Hill
4. Intel working on EMIB successor for true 3D packaging, called Fevoros
5. Fevoros will succeed EMIB post-Sapphire Rapids, ICL-SP targeted for 2019, SPR for 2020
6. There will be "only" 3 gens of 10nm (10, 10+, 10++)
7. Raja has redefined Arctic Sound, split in two: orignally for video streaming in data center, now also specifically for gaming, want to enter market with a bang
8. Intel has pulled the the power management from Lakefield into Tiger Lake, has very low standby power of 9mW
9. Arctic Sound will consist of 2-4 chiplets
10. Apple execs were said to be "surprised" by (35W) Tiger Lake's low standby power of 9mW
Ashraf Eassa, long-time Intel analyst at The Motley Fool (https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool), has become known for his reputation as being one of the most trustworthy and consistent leakers of insider information from Intel, such as code names.
Among other things, in the last half a year, he was the first (but sadly the tech press has not yet caught up to any of this information nor given him the credits he deserves) to tell us about Whiskey Lake (and that it's 14++), Alder Lake, Monette Hill, Lakefield being big.little Core/Atom mashup, that the first 10nm Cannon Lake part having been PRQ'd is a 2+0 SKU, Arctic Sound (Gen12) and Jupiter Sound (Gen13) dGPUs, Meteor Lake (7nm), Granite Rapids (7nm), Raja making changes to Arctic Sound to make it more competitive for gaming, Intel working on CUDA competitor for release this year, Arctic Sound using chiplets and Intel making a dedicated ASIC for inference. (If you want a source for any of these, feel free to ask.)
Now, he has leaked a few little more tidbits for you to enjoy.
The leaks
More specifically, on the CPU side, he confirms that Icelake-SP is still targeted for 2019 (last year D. Schor said May'19) and Sappire Rapids is still targeted for 2020 (a roadmap two years ago suggested mid-'20). As Intel said, there will be 3 gens of 10nm (with ICL being 10+ and SPR being 10++). Given Intel's yearly cadence, by the way, this implies 7nm (Granite Rapids) is still planned for 2021. (Intel's annual report suggested Intel has already started working on Fab 42 in 2017.)
Further, Intel has put Lakefield's power management in Tiger Lake for very low standby of 9mW, something Apple execs (who are likely familiar with iPhone's feeds and speeds) were "surprised" with.
Next, on the packaging side, Ashraf has come with the major scoop that Intel is working on a 3D packaging technology called Fevoros, which will be able to package "smaller dies together as well as 3D stacking". It will be used post-Sapphire Rapids (so starting with 7nm Granite Rapids); EMIB will be used until SPR.
For some context as to what this significant news implies. It will be the successor of EMIB. EMIB is a 2.5D packaging technology that allowed for connecting dies (that are within um next to each other) with a low-power and very high-bandwidth interconnect (potentially over 4TB/s). EMIB's claim to fame and differentiator compared to the competition is that it doesn't use a very big (expensive) interposer, nor does it use yield-destroying TSVs (through silicon vias), but just a small embedded bridge in the package (as the name implies obviously).
Now, I have to say 3D stacking is already done: it is used in HBM. But as everyone knows Intel is not a DRAM manufacturer, so this implies that Intel is going to 3D stack logic dies (or 3D XPoint?). This would be a first. Everyone in the industry is interested in how well cooling of 3D stacked logic dies will go.
I would guess that this will be an extension of EMIB: Intel is working on multiple generations of EMIB, for instance we know Falcon Mesa will use EMIB2, which will shrink the bump pitch to 35um from 55um for 2.5x the bandwidth, and Intel has previously said they were seeing as low as 10um in the labs.
Finally, on the GPU side of things, Ashraf has given a few more details about Arctic Sound (10++ Gen12 based, the GPU architecture that will be in Tiger Lake). He says Arctic Sound was initially targeted as an accelerator in the data center for "video streaming apps". (We know Intel is fully embracing the heterogeneous future of compute, with things like FPGAs, training and inference ASICs and GPUs.) With Raja on board, Arctic Sound has been "split into two", with the second side of the coin being the gaming market. He is said he wants to "enter the market with a bang". So it is obvious Intel will be giving NVIDIA a hard time (which is necessary because NVIDIA is doing very well wrt execution), bringing significant competition to the market.
Arctic Sound is targeted for PRQ in H1'20 (which in any case implies a 2020 launch). He also says it will consist of an MCP with up to 4 dies. (I assume these chiplets will be connected via EMIB, since that's the only thing that would be feasible.)
Now, the interesting bit here is that he says they're targeting Jupiter Sound to have leadership (i.e. >NVIDIA) performance/watt "under 60W". Now, 60W doesn't sound very high-end to me, but given that they're going the MCP route, I'd presume the 60W is for just one chiplet. So if one extrapolates to 4 chiplets, that makes for a high-end (leadership) product of 240W of 7nm Gen13 goodiness in 2021.
To end, he also notes Knights Crest will be fabbed in-house, but everyone had thought that already. But Intel is also working on a dedicated DL chip for inference called Spring Hill.
Sources
He has not disclosed his sources, but he often has multiple independent ones and he has a good track record.
1. Arctic Sound PRQ=H1'20, targeting perf/watt leadership under 60W
2. Knights Crest will be in-house fabbed (that Spring Crest is TSMC was already known)
3. Intel's DL inference ASIC (was already known Intel was working on this based on job postings) called Spring Hill
4. Intel working on EMIB successor for true 3D packaging, called Fevoros
5. Fevoros will succeed EMIB post-Sapphire Rapids, ICL-SP targeted for 2019, SPR for 2020
6. There will be "only" 3 gens of 10nm (10, 10+, 10++)
7. Raja has redefined Arctic Sound, split in two: orignally for video streaming in data center, now also specifically for gaming, want to enter market with a bang
8. Intel has pulled the the power management from Lakefield into Tiger Lake, has very low standby power of 9mW
9. Arctic Sound will consist of 2-4 chiplets
10. Apple execs were said to be "surprised" by (35W) Tiger Lake's low standby power of 9mW
1. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982050979779620864
2. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982051391937175552
3. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982052159356317698
4. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982052705949626368
5. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982053583607795714
6. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982053789946597376
7. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982054901105782784
8. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982055499100250113
9. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982056227940204544
10. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982060375167221761
2. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982051391937175552
3. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982052159356317698
4. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982052705949626368
5. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982053583607795714
6. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982053789946597376
7. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982054901105782784
8. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982055499100250113
9. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982056227940204544
10. https://twitter.com/TMFChipFool/status/982060375167221761
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