Intel developing its own stacked cache tech to compete with AMD 3D V-Cache
Intel is working on its own version of stable cache that AMD launched with its 3D V-Cache technology, although it is still at least two generations away.
Following Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s Intel Innovation 2023 keynote, Gelsinger held a Q&A session with members of the press during which he was asked whether Intel would adopt the same stackable cache technology that AMD uses to make some of the best processors on the market. .
“When you refer to V-Cache,” Gelsinger said, as reported by Tom’s material“you’re talking about a very specific technology that TSMC is also using with some of its customers. Obviously we do this differently in our composition, right? And this particular type of technology is not part of (the new Intel Core Ultra processors), but in our roadmap you see the idea of 3D silicon where we will have cache on one chip, and we will have the CPU compute on the chip stacked above, and obviously using ( integrated multi-chip interconnection bridges) Foveros (chipset packaging technology), we will be able to compose different capacities.
Anyone who saw Gelsinger’s keynote would have seen how Intel’s next processor roadmap will move heavily toward the multi-chiplet module (MCM) design paradigm, where different processor components like the iGPU, cache and Intel’s new digital processing unit would be discrete segments linked together. into a single unit rather than putting them together at once.
The MCM process offers much more flexibility than the more restrictive monolithic silicon manufacturing that was traditionally used before, and would obviously open up all sorts of new chip design possibilities that were not practical with a monolithic structure.
The most obvious of these is stacked cache, which significantly increases the pool of cache memory available to the CPU, resulting in much faster processing of specific CPU workloads.
AMD has already proven the benefits of this expanded cache pool by releasing the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D chip in 2022, followed by AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D, and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D earlier this year.
“We are very pleased to have advanced capabilities for next generation memory architectures, benefits for 3D stacking, both for small chips, as well as very large packages for AI and servers high performance,” Gelsinger said. “So we have a full range of these technologies. We will use them for our products and also introduce them to (Intel) Foundry customers.”
Stackable Cache Is Just the Start of Intel’s Packaging Technology
Intel’s move to designing MCM processors using its integrated multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) and Forveros chip packaging technology is a major step forward for the chipmaker.
The best Intel processors of recent years have relied heavily on simply injecting raw electrical power into their processors to boost performance, making their high-end Intel Core i9-12900K and Intel Core i9-13900K particularly power-hungry. energy.
This has allowed it to regain a lot of lost ground against the best AMD processors of recent years, but it’s not a viable long-term solution, and even Nvidia would see the wisdom in moving to an MCM design for its next processor. Next-generation Nvidia Blackwell architecture.
And while the idea of a future Intel processor, perhaps as early as Lunar Lake, with stacked cache is exciting, it should only be the beginning of new processor development, not the end.