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By Harald Thon, Wolfgang Gruener
Santa Clara (CA) - Intel provided several updates about
its first mobile dual-core processor "Yonah". The chip, scheduled to enter
production late in 2005, will be equipped with 2 MByte shared L2 cache,
as well as a shared bus architecture.
With the desktop dual-core Pentium D out the door, Intel now is preparing
for the final development phase of Yonah. Yonah will be not only the first
mobile dual-core processor, but also the first processor to be manufactured
in 65 nm.
According to Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel's mobile
platforms group, Yonah will carry 151.6 million transistors, integrate a
667 MHz front side bus and wll be built into a PGA478 or BGA479 package.
The chip will use a revamped architecture that combines two execution cores
on one piece of silicon. Both cores share one bus and 2 MByte L2 cache.
Intel calls the shared cache concept "Smart Cache", being
capable of delivering several benefits over a dedicated cache. For example,
shared L2 would enables access to the full cache size when only one core
is active and minimize bus traffic by allowing both cores to access a single
copy of data. Also, Intel uses data pre-fetchers to improve cache performance
and employs a bandwidth adaption buffer that enables twice the average bandwidth
when both cores are active, according to Eden.
Power consumption of the dual-core chip will remain in the power envelope
of today's single-core Pentium M processor (about 25 watts). Intel explained
this achievement with enhancements in "deeper sleep" and Speed Step technologies
as well as improved leakage current behavior in its 65 nm structures.
While smaller structures typically increase leakage current, Intel said
in a recent conversation with Tom's Hardware Guide that the company was
able to actually improve the relationship between transistor performance
and leakage with 65 nm chips, if compared to the previous 90 nm generation.
Yonah is the first processor to take advantage of this effect. Apparently,
the progress in the scaling field was much larger than Intel originally
expected and prompted the company to change its power consumption roadmap:
Last year, the company said notebooks with battery running times of about
8 hours could be available by 2010. Today Eden said such devices could hit
the market already by 2008.
Considering the amount of innovation in Yonah, it is almost surprising that
Intel's first Yonah processor will not be able to run 64-bit applications.
We also remember former chief technology officer Pat Gelsinger urging software
developers to work on 64-bit applications "now" not too long ago. At this
time, it is not clear why Yonah will be a 32-bit only chip. Eden said the
technology is available today, but the 64-bit market has yet to mature.
However, we also heard in the past that the integration of 64-bit capability
would have increased the size and power consumption of the chip.
Mass-production of Yonah is scheduled to begin late this year with commercial
products expected to become available in the first quarter of 2006.
