Intel Comet Lake surfaces in Linux drivers - Intel going for 10 cores for desktop procs
New pending desktop processors from Intel under codename Comet Lake-S, seem to get a maximum of 10 cores. The decacore proc will follow the Core i9 9900K, and is a modified version of the Skylake architecture.
To avoid any confusion, these are being produced at 14 nanometers. The discovery was made as some entries surfaced in Linux drivers now another infusion of Skylake architecture is mentioned for the first time. The drivers list CML processors, which is the abbreviation for Comet Lake in Intel's nomenclature. The procs get GT1 and GT2 integrated graphics units (ninth generation of Intel's integrated graphics chips) and that indicates a fourth gen Skylake architecture.
INTEL_WHL_U_GT2_IDS(&intel_coffeelake_gt2_info),
INTEL_AML_CFL_GT2_IDS(&intel_coffeelake_gt2_info),
INTEL_WHL_U_GT3_IDS(&intel_coffeelake_gt3_info),
INTEL_CML_GT1_IDS(&intel_coffeelake_gt1_info),
INTEL_CML_GT2_IDS(&intel_coffeelake_gt2_info),
INTEL_CNL_IDS(&intel_cannonlake_info),
INTEL_ICL_11_IDS(&intel_icelake_11_info){ CPUID_COMETLAKE_U_A0, "Cometlake-U A0 (6+2)" },
{ CPUID_COMETLAKE_U_K0_S0, "Cometlake-U K0/S0 (6+2)/(4+2)" },
{ CPUID_COMETLAKE_H_S_6_2_P0, "Cometlake-H/S P0 (6+2)" },
{ CPUID_COMETLAKE_H_S_10_2_P0, "Cometlake-H/S P0 (10+2)" }
The indications that desktop procs will get up to ten cores and notebooks up to six cores. Interesting is the CML-S which has a design with ten cores, ie a Decacore for desktop systems. The processor would follow the eight-core Core i9-9900K (test) and, as usual, use an optimized Skylake microarchitecture.
Comet Lake seems to be a reaction to the launch of Zen 2, aka Ryzen 3000. There are expected models with eight, twelve and sixteen cores coming towards the PC mainstream segment.
Codename | Core Generation | node | Cores + graphics | iGPU | Launch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arrandale | 1st gene | 32 nm | 2 + GT2 | Gen5.75 | 2010 |
Sandy Bridge | 2nd Gen | 32 nm | 2 + GT2 | Gen6 | 2011 |
Ivy Bridge | 3rd gene | 22 nm FinFet | 2 + GT2 | Gen7 | 2012 |
Haswell (HSW-ULT) | 4th Gen | 22 nm FinFet | 2 + GT2, 2 + GT3 | Gen7.5 | 2013 |
Broadwell (BDW-U) | 5th Gen | 14 nm FinFet | 2 + GT2, 2 + GT3 | Gen8 | 2014 |
Skylake (SKL-U) | 6th gene | 14 nm FinFet | 2 + GT2, 2 + GT3e | Gen9 | 2015 |
Kaby Lake (KBL-U) | 7th gene | 14+ nm FinFet | 2 + GT2, 2 + GT3e | Gen9.5 | 2016 |
Kaby Lake Refresh (KBL-U R) | 8th gene | 14 ++ nm FinFet | 4 + GT2, 4 + GT3e | Gen9.5 | 2017 |
Cannon Lake (CNL-U) | 8th gene | 10 nm FinFet | 2 + GT2 (deactivated) | GEN10 | 2018 |
Whiskey Lake (WHL-U) | 9th gene | 14 ++ nm FinFet | 4 + GT2 | Gen9.5 | 2018 |
Comet Lake (CML-U) | 9th gene | 14 ++ nm FinFet | 2 + GT2, 4 + GT2, 6 + GT2 | Gen9.5 | 2019 |
Ice Lake (ICL-U) | 10th gene (?) | 10+ nm FinFet | 4 + GT2 | Gen11 | 2019 |
Tiger Lake | 11th gene (?) | 10 ++ nm FinFet | ? | Xe (?) | 2020 (?) |
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True, but I assume whoever is going to get a 10 core beast like that will likely have the money for liquid cooling
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hehe i think intel and amd should slow down on the core count... focus on the power, heat and maybe.. just maybe we will see a 6ghz out of the box from either company
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Core count helps with power and heat. Just look at phones: 8 cores isn't anything extraordinary even in relatively cheaper models, and they operate with very little energy. The problem in PCs is that Intel's refusal to give mainstream more cores for a decade (and AMD being out of competition) meant that a major portion of the software didn't really use multiple cores, because people didn't have multiple cores in their systems (the programs had to run on everything from only 2 cores and up). Of course any serious software for productivity could use all cores available (within reason) from ages ago, but that wasn't something so essential for 99% of regular home users. After that decade long drought of little to zero development, we are now suddenly taking the steps that should have happened already gradually during that decade. That's why the core race seems so crazy. But if this had happened slowly during 10 years, you would pay no attention whatsoever to it.
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The silicon will be used for a variety of products, from mobile to desktop, plus there are plenty of people that don't need a discrete gpu, and just need something to connect a monitor to, and maybe provide some desktop acceleration.
Hey buddy u just proved my point. That "plenty of people " arent gonna be customer of this processor.
So, yes i still think an iGpu in a 10core cpu is a waste of die space to its user for most cases
well the vast majority of people don't need more than 8 cores tbh...
the key question will be pricing and single threaded performance
"The majority of people" logic doesn't apply here mate. Because these decacore or 16core cpus are for that minority of the people who's gonna need that threaded performance.
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The CPU with 10 cores must cost like 700 euros with Intel's current pricing scheme. Super competitive.