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.
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Spunjji - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
+1chubbypanda - Monday, May 6, 2013 - link
The article is about yet to be relased platform. Obviously you could get better information if you work for Intel or its OEM partners. If you don't, Anand's writing is as good as they get.Thrill92 - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
But what's your point?raptorious - Monday, May 6, 2013 - link
It seems like every subsequent Anandtech article about Intel that I read sounds more and more like an Intel Marketing slide deck. I think I'd believe that the absolute performance of Silvermont is better than Cortex A15, but I'm very skeptical that the perf/watt will actually be better at the TDP that we care about for a tablet. I have a very hard time believing that a 2-wide OoO architecture will get better IPC than a 3-wide one. In order to achieve better performance, you'd have to very aggressively scale frequency, and as we all know, perf/watt usually decreases as you scale frequency up (C*V^2*F). It MIGHT be better perf/watt in a phone, simply because with a 2-wide architecture, you can scale dynamic power much lower, but of course, then you can't make the ridiculous claims of 1.6x performance.JarredWalton - Monday, May 6, 2013 - link
FWIW, Intel is willing to provide these detailed slide decks long in advance of the launch of their hardware. The other SoC vendors are far less willing to share information. If Apple, Qualcomm, or some other vendor put together a nice slide deck, I can guarantee we'd be writing about it.B - Monday, May 6, 2013 - link
@JarredWalton, I completely agree with your assessment. I have listened to every Anandtech Podcast and repeatedly hear Anand and Brian Klug lament the lack of transparency with the other SOC vendors. Those two go through great lengths to get any meaningful information on the roadmaps of Apple, Qualcomm, et al. The bottom line is that currently Intel is accustomed to sharing more information than its peers in the mobile industry and I suspect your readership wants to know what's coming long before the product is released, and this will always include a speculative component.beginner99 - Monday, May 6, 2013 - link
The intel slides basically say intel will have 8x better performance/watt. Now if you don't believe them, just half the numbers and you are at 4x, which is still huge...I believe it.Medfield uses a basically 5 year old design on an older process!!! than current ARM offerings and is competitive in performance/watt (it's actually better already). The only thing is how efficient the GPU will be and even more important how expensive the whole SOC will be. So even if the performance and power data is correct, not guarantee it will succeed.
I do see why some don't like the article but I think Anand is just enthusiastic and lets be honest, AMD has no delivered anything to be enthusiastic about in years and has a history of misinformation on slides What intel disclosed on slides was usually more or less true in the past so they have more credit than AMD.
raptorious - Monday, May 6, 2013 - link
Showing 8x perf/watt or even 4x perf/watt from generation to generation might be possible by milking numbers, but across the board that is laughably impossible. You're talking about defying the laws of physics. This architecture isn't radically different from A15 or other designs, and the process improvements of 22 nm over 32 nm don't just magically give you 4x perf/watt. If you want to live in Intel's fairy tale land, go ahead.JDG1980 - Monday, May 6, 2013 - link
Intel has far better fabs than anyone else. That alone gives them a huge advantage. The reason they've been doing so poorly up until now is that (as the article mentions) they've basically been stagnating with an Atom design dating back to 2004. Now that they've updated to a modern design, they should be able to beat their competitors decisively on the hardware side. Whether that will lead to design wins or not, who can say... they're pretty late to this particular game. But they can give it a good shot.t.s. - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - link
Yeah, right. Same with AMD. After they 'upgrade' their architecture from star to bulldozer, they automagically have a huge advantage. Remember, changing architecture doesn't necessary a good thing. Moreover for the 1st time you do the change.