Intel Teases a "Hybrid" Mobile SoC

At CES 2019, Intel previewed their upcoming "Lakefield" SoC. Unlike Intel's previous mobile designs, Lakefield uses Intel's Foveros 3D stacking technology to integrate various IPs and system memory into a diminutive 12mm x 12mm package, and mixes 4 10nm Atom cores with a single 10nm Sunny Cove core. Unfortunately, Intel didn't specify how, or if, all the logical blocks are separated at the time. My take from CES was that the small Atom Cores, the big Sunny Cove core, and the various I/O blocks would all share the same 10nm die, but the wording in Intel's latest promo video makes that assumption more ambiguous, and manufacturing different logical blocks on different processes like AMD does for their 7nm Epyc CPUs is certainly something Intel is capable of. Either way, Lakefield is likely a window into the future of Intel CPU designs, and I fully expect the chipmaker to eventually take the same "modular" approach in higher end end desktop and server CPUs. Thanks to cageymaru for the tip.

Check out the "Lakefield" promo video here.

This hybrid CPU architecture enables combining different pieces of IP that might have previously been discrete into a single product with a smaller motherboard footprint, which allows OEMs more flexibility for thin and light form factor design. Lakefield is expected to be in production this year.

That's nice. Now tell me how much more awesomeness I'm getting.

Intel has been trying to break into the mobile market forever, but they've never had the price, the performance, the efficiency, or the industry-friendly culture. It doesn't look like they're targeting phones, although I'm sure they'd like to be, but the sub-laptop market is really cut throat, and Intel isn't skilled or interested in tight-budget manufacturing. Intel's Atom seems to be stuck being the low-end choice for fanless, boring mini-pcs.

Intel has been floundering in this market for over a decade. Architecture won't get them in the door. They need to go for awesomeness.

Intel will inevitably move to a chiplet package just like AMD. This one doesn't sound good though, those 4 puny Atom cores are horribly slow.

so they are glueing stacks of chips

AlphaAtlas said:

Lakefield is likely a window into the future of Intel CPU designs, and I fully expect the chipmaker to eventually take the same "modular" approach in higher end end desktop and server CPUs

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I don't expect them in high-end desktop. Maybe servers, as there are usecases for many-core low power servers, and may be some use for a few faster cores on such a server. But on high-end desktops, those fast cores are clocked so high that you need powerful cooling to keep them from overheating, and sandwiching smaller cores above or below (even if they are more resilient to heat) doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

That said, if anyone can make it happen, it's intel.