A SiSoftware performance test database recorded a test of a server or workstation built on two mysterious six-core Intel processors. These processors are primarily interesting because they have a rather unusual second-level cache of 1.25 MB per core.
This is five times more compared to the 256 KB of L2 cache in Coffee Lake Refresh desktop processors, and two and a half times more than the latest Ice Lake-U chips, which have 512 KB per core. Additionally, this is 25% more than the current HEDT Core-X processors or server Xeon Scalable, which have 1 MB of second-level cache per core.
Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that this processor utilizes one of Intel's new architectures. These could be 10-nm Ice Lake or Tiger Lake, or 14-nm Rocket Lake. Not much is currently known about the last two architectures, however, one of about Tiger Lake indicated that it indeed has 1.25 MB of second-level cache per core.
At the same time, suggested that the Tiger Lake family will only feature mobile processors with no more than four cores. In turn, Rocket Lake chips will offer up to eight cores. Moreover, the six-core chips tested in SiSoftware have less third-level cache than the 'leaked' earlier Tiger Lake.
This leads to the assumption that the smaller L3 cache might be the result of less dense transistor placement, meaning a 'larger' manufacturing process. It's possible that we are observing a shift from a more 'fine' 10-nm process to the old reliable 14-nm. Recently, it was just , that Rocket Lake will use a new architecture, but on the old manufacturing process.
There is also another possibility: everything described in the previous two paragraphs may not hold true, and we are looking at a system based on two 10-nm Ice Lake-SP server processors. They could very well have the same cores as the mobile Ice Lake-U, but with more second-level cache per core. For Intel, such practices are not new.
Összességében nehéz konkrét következtetéseket levonni ebből az eredményből. Ahogy látható, sok lehetőség van, de kevés bizonyíték. Az egyetlen dolog, amiben biztosak lehetünk – ezek a hatmagos processzorok nem a Skylake leszármazottai.
Forrás: 3dnews.ru
