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posted by martyb on Friday July 12 2019, @12:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the Have-come-a-long-ways-from-the-4004 dept.

Intel will be using a few packaging technologies to connect CPU core "chiplets":

Intel revealed three new packaging technologies at SEMICON West: Co-EMIB, Omni-Directional Interconnect (ODI) and Multi-Die I/O (MDIO). These new technologies enable massive designs by stitching together multiple dies into one processor. Building upon Intel's 2.5D EMIB and 3D Foveros tech, the technologies aim to bring near-monolithic power and performance to heterogeneous packages. For the data-center, that could enable a platform scope that far exceeds the die-size limits of single dies.

[...] Compared to interposers, which can be reticle-sized (832mm2) or even larger, [EMIB (Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge)] is just a small (hence, cheap) piece of silicon. It provides the same bandwidth and energy-per-bit advantages of an interposer compared to standard package traces, which are traditionally used for multi-chip packages (MCPs), such as AMD's Infinity Fabric. (To some extent, because the PCH is a separate die, chiplets have actually been around for a very long time.)

[...] Intel showed off a concept product that contains four Foveros stacks, with each stack having eight small compute chiplets that are connected via TSVs to the base die. (So the role of Foveros there is to connect the chiplets as if it were a monolithic die.) Each Foveros stack is then interconnected via two (Co-)EMIB links with its two adjacent Foveros stacks. Co-EMIB is further used to connect the HBM and transceivers to the compute stacks.

Evidently, the cost of such a product would be enormous, as it essentially contains multiple traditional monolithic-class products in a single package. That's likely why Intel categorized it as a data-centric concept product, aimed mainly at the cloud players that are more than happy to absorb those costs in exchange for the extra performance.

[...] When they are ready, these technologies will provide Intel with powerful capabilities for the heterogeneous and data-centric era. On the client side, the benefits of advanced packaging include smaller package size and lower power consumption (for Lakefield, Intel claims a 10x SoC standby power improvement at 2.6mW). In the data center, advanced packaging will help to build very large and powerful platforms on a single package, with performance, latency, and power characteristics close to what a monolithic die would yield. The yield advantage of small chiplets and the establishment of chipset ecosystem are major drivers, too.

Also at The Register, VentureBeat, Guru3D, and PCWorld.

Related: Intel Core i7-8809G with Radeon Graphics and High Bandwidth Memory: Details Leaked
Intel Announces "Sunny Cove", Gen11 Graphics, Discrete Graphics Brand Name, 3D Packaging, and More
Intel Promises "10nm" Chips by the End of 2019, and More
Intel Details Lakefield CPU SoC With 3D Packaging and Big/Small Core Configuration
Intel's Jim Keller Promises That "Moore's Law" is Not Dead, Outlines 50x Improvement Plan


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @07:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @07:11AM (#866142)

    Intel tried to shut up the security researchers of Zombieload with money. Happily they didn't fell for the underhanded trick.

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