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SiFive reckons its fastest RISC-V processor core yet is closing the gap on being a mainstream computing alternative to x86 and Arm.
The yet-unnamed high-performance design is within reach of Intel's Rocket Lake family, introduced in March, and Arm's Cortex-A78 design, announced last year, in terms of single-core performance, James Prior, senior director of product marketing and communications at SiFive, told The Register.
San Francisco-based SiFive didn't provide specific comparative benchmarks, so you'll have to take their word for it, if you so choose.
[...] SiFive's latest design, which is set to be teased today, will be christened with a formal name at the RISC-V Summit in December.
The CPU core is said to be about 50 per cent faster than its predecessor, the P550, which was introduced in June. We note that the L3 cache memory capacity has been quadrupled, from the 4MB in the P550 to 16MB in the new design. Up to 16 of these new cores can be clustered versus the maximum of four for the P550. The latest design can also run up to 3.5GHz compared to 2.4GHz for the P550.
Intel's Attempt to Acquire SiFive for $2 Billion Fell Apart, Report Claims
While Intel was interested to acquire RISC-V processor developer SiFive and SiFive is considering its strategic options, the companies could not agree neither on financial terms nor on how SiFive technologies could be used at Intel reports Bloomberg. The latter company is still considering both an initial public offering (IPO) as well as a takeover by a larger player.
Previously: SiFive Announces HiFive Unmatched Mini-ITX Motherboard for RISC-V PCs
Intel May Attempt to Acquire SiFive for $2 Billion
Intel Will License SiFive's New P550 RISC-V Core
(Score: 4, Insightful) by driverless on Saturday October 23 2021, @07:32AM (1 child)
And once they figure out how to get that performance level without GaN chips cooled with liquid helium, they'll be onto a real winner!
Before that gets modded flamebait, I actually rather like the whole RISC-V effort, I just wish they'd be a bit more real-world realistic with their claims.
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Saturday October 23 2021, @05:25PM
I don't think anyone has a GaN foundry that can reach the process nodes and density required to build these chips. I've only seen GaN used in N-Channel power MOSFETs anyway. I think the higher speed non-Si stuff is usually GaAs; if memory serves, that was used in cellular baseband modems at one point. IBM also has a SiGe graded heterojunction process that is really high speed, but I don't think they've made a CPU out of it. Heterojunction sounds like BJTs anyway, so that might be more targeted at RF and other high speed amplifiers.
These SiFive CPUs were most likely made at one of the Silicon foundries that does contract work, like TSMC or whoever else is in that market. The most they would have done for cooling is use a large, high power cold plate, but I doubt they're pushing the TDP that far.
It'll be good to see better data on computational performance and power dissipation.