Intel’s Silvermont Architecture Revealed: Getting Serious About Mobile
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 6, 2013 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Silvermont
- SoCs
SoCs and Graphics
Intel isn’t talking about implementations of Silvermont today other than to say that it will show up in smartphones (Merrifield), tablets (Baytrail), automotive (unannounced), communications infrastructure products (Rangeley) and microservers (Avoton). Baytrail, the tablet implementation of Silvermont, will be available by the end of this year running both Windows 8 (8.1/Blue?) and Android. Silvermont based Merrifield phones will show up early in 2014.
What we know about Baytrail is that it will be a quad-core implementation of Silvermont paired with Intel’s own Gen 7 graphics. Although we don’t know clock speeds, we do know that Baytrail’s GPU core will feature 4 EUs - 1/4 the number used in Ivy Bridge’s Gen7 implementation (Intel HD 4000). Ultimately we can’t know how fast the GPU will be until we know clock speeds, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see something at or around where the iPad 4’s GPU is today. Given Intel’s recent announcements around Iris and Iris Pro, it’s clear that the mobile team hasn’t yet had the graphics wakeup call that the Core team just got - but I suspect the Atom group will get there sooner rather than later. Intel’s eDRAM approach to scaling Haswell graphics (and CPU) performance has huge implications in mobile. I wouldn’t expect eDRAM enabled mobile SoCs based on Silvermont, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see something at 14nm.
Penryn-Class Performance
When Atom first came out, I put its CPU performance in perspective by comparing it to older Pentium M based notebooks. It turned out that a 1.6GHz Atom performed similarly to a 1.2GHz Pentium M. So how does Silvermont stack up in PC notebook terms?
On single threaded performance, you should expect a 2.4GHz Silvermont to perform like a 1.2GHz Penryn. To put it in perspective of actual systems, we’re talking about around the level of performance of an 11-inch Core 2 Duo MacBook Air from 2010. Keep in mind, I’m talking about single threaded performance here. In heavily threaded applications, a quad-core Silvermont should be able to bat even further up the Penryn line. Intel is able to do all of this with only a 2-wide machine (lower IPC, but much higher frequency thanks to 22nm).
There’s no doubt in my mind that a Baytrail Android tablet will deliver amazing performance, the real unknown is whether or not a Baytrail Windows 8 detachable/convertible will be fast enough to deliver a good enough legacy Windows experience. I suspect it’ll take Airmont before we really get there by my standards, but it’ll be close this round for sure.
What’ll really be interesting to see is how Silvermont fares in smartphones. Max clock speeds should be lower than what’s possible in a tablet, but not by all that much thanks to good power management. When viewed in that light, I don’t know that there’s a more exciting mobile architecture announced at this point. The ability to deliver 2010 11-inch MacBook Air performance in a phone is insane.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
174 Comments
View All Comments
althaz - Monday, May 6, 2013 - link
I don't think you fully grasp the situation. Whilst Intel definitely can (and realistically should) take a strong leadership position in the mobile sector, companies like Qualcomm aren't going anywhere - Intel still won't (be able to?) compete on price, which means even if they take the lions-share of the market, there will be enough left for others to survive (they'll be a lot better off than AMD who sells more-expensive-to-manufacture chips for cheaper that perform worse and use more power).Although I wouldn't be too confident about nVidia, as they are yet to show they can compete with the likes of Qualcomm, let alone Intel.
R0H1T - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
They most certainly will not "take the lions-share of the market" because that belongs to the ultra thin margin chipmakers like Mediatek/Allwinner that deliver quad core ARM v7 based SoC in that 10~20$ range where Intel will not & cannot compete because of their relatively high(er) cost structure !Khato - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
This is an argument that never makes sense to me. Yes, Intel won't go into a market unless the margins make it worthwhile... but do you not realize how cheap it is for Intel to make value processors on a deprecated node? Remember, Allwinner and Mediatek may operate on ultra thin margins, but that's in large part because the majority of the margins on their product go to the foundry they use. aka, when all the high end products are using Airmont cores Intel can keep making use of their 22nm capacity for awhile churning out 'old' Silvermont based products for the value market and simply get closer to the 'operating point' margin for that node.R0H1T - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
I can't say how much TSMC charges for those chips but from what I know the single biggest cost of operations for Intel, outside of their R&D spending & foundry equipment upgrades, must be manpower & the difference between a Chinese/Taiwanese firm vs Intel in this particular dept would be a major one ! This is the real cost advantage that most smaller firms enjoy vis-a-vis Intel & for the foreseeable future they'll continue with this advantage.xTRICKYxx - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
I didn't feel like this article is Intel PR crap. I read it all and I looked at all the improvements that are inbound; and I couldn't help but feel excited about Silvermont just like Anand.I cannot wait to see some benchmarks in the next few months.
Silma - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
On lack of AMD's comparison: there is nothing to compare and while one should tread cautiously with Intel's slides one should not tread at all with AMD's slides because AMD has a huge legacy of promises not held - how many time did we hear it would catch up in notebook or desktops, in performance or performance/watt. While Intel disappoints from time to time (Pentium 4) AMD disappoints most of the time, its last interesting product was the Opteron. Like most companies without vision it ends up doing stupid mergers instead of concentrating on core business.On Intel vs ARM. Silvermont looks promising but Intel needs to accelerate its roadmap. At the end of the year it probably won't compete against a 28nm A15. Qualcomm will not sleep for a year. Also it will have to invest heavily into marketing and OEM incentives if it seriously wants a share of the mobile pile. Will shareholders
ET - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
I'm excited. A 7-8" full Windows tablet with decent performance would be very neat. I'll wait to see what performance this gets in games. I don't need much, just enough to run adventure games and such.R0H1T - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
Then get ready to shell out upwards of 500$ /:pensive69 - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
can't stand getting a partially functioning market focused 'hack' on a cellphone.if the 22nm drill provides a full computer in a smaller form then factor me in!
i don't care which firm does it...like those kids in the commercial
we just want more we want more :).
love it.
Laststop311 - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
this chip will have to pull off a miracle to drive full windows 8 and the everyday apps people use. Seems like it's going to average maybe slightly over 2x performance. That seems like a lot but when you see how poor current atoms are double that performance still is not enough. Does have potential in android phones/tablets and windows 8 phones/tablets as long as it's windows rt on the tablet. Atom still is not good enough for full windows 8