Too bad they fired the ceo that made it happen
Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
71–80 of 111 posts
Re: Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
#72Random question: where did the ARM core design come from?
The actual ARM1 processor was built for the "tube" connection on a 6502-based 8-bit BBC Microcomputer in the early 1980s. These two articles are popular for the details of that history. ARM dominates the second. https://www.theregister.com/2012/05/02/unsung_heroes_of_tech... https://www.theregister.com/2012/05/03/unsung_heroes_of_tech...
I'm pretty sure the grandparent's question was "What IP is on the ARM SOC being fabricated?" and not "Tell me about the history of Acorn RISC Machines".
And the answer isn't clear. The fact that it's been given an Intel code name ("Deer Creek Falls") implies that it's an internal design, so presumably it's an easily-licensed/synthesized core like a Cortex X1 or whatnot. Certainly Intel isn't expected to be designing custom ARM hardware.
Re: Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
#73Assuming they’re telling the truth, they’ve successfully built one chip from that fab. That’s good, but it doesn’t mean the fab is capable of manufacturing at scale while turning a profit. They need an external customer for the fab so they can iterate and work out the issues. It’s anyone’s guess if someone trusts intel to manufacture on their behalf instead of sticking with an established player. They’re stuck in a c…
Isn't the traditional solution to offer a really big rebate to the first customer? Like 75% off for the first run of chips?
If Intel doesn't even want to dogfood their own node, this isn't a matter of tuning sales incentives.
https://semiwiki.com/forum/threads/nova-lake-to-use-tsmc-n2p...
Re: Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
#74[deleted]
Re: Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
#75It's going to be fun in two years when Intel is golden child again because TSMC has bomb damage and Taiwan is blockaded.
Re: Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
#76Someone moved Intel's cheese, and they didn't go after it until it was too late.
Nobody is going to be switching their ARM-based chip provider from TSMC or anyone else (with whom they've only just built up enough trust) to even thinking of changing.
Without a track record of delivery, intel is just there to be used in leverage with price negotiations with TSMC.
Re: Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
#77Assuming they’re telling the truth, they’ve successfully built one chip from that fab. That’s good, but it doesn’t mean the fab is capable of manufacturing at scale while turning a profit. They need an external customer for the fab so they can iterate and work out the issues. It’s anyone’s guess if someone trusts intel to manufacture on their behalf instead of sticking with an established player. They’re stuck in a c…
Intel has a habit of giving up on things too early. So I'm not sure I would trust them with anything even if they had a better process or were less expensive or easier to work with.
Yup. Let’s see how they do with Arc. It takes multiple years and architecture revisions to catch up, and honestly they’ve been making very respectful improvements from Alchemist to Battlemage, and driver support and updates have been progressing very well.
I hope they don’t can it.
Re: Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand what the difference is between "an ARM chip with native x86 translation" and a dual-ISA x86 and ARM chip. And I don't understand why you'd want a dual-ISA x86 and ARM rather than just an x86 chip. You wouldn't get whatever CPU front-end simplicity advantages there are from ARM, since your front-end would get significantly more complex and consume significantly more transistors than with a normal x8…
I wonder if ARM instructions could be translated to Intel’s uOps. Then everything except that translation could be shared. And, since programs consist entirely of one type of instruction for the most part, we could imagine that the chip should be able to stick to just doing one type of translation for the duration of a program run, rather than having to figure it out for each instruction. I’m not saying I want this,…
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Re: Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Intel are believed to hold an Arm architectural license [1] as far as I know, they have made Arm-based things in the past. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture_family#Archit...
If they didn’t have one already they would have presumably acquired one when they bought Altera - they had SoC FPGAs that have ARM cores hooked up to an FPGA fabric. They have since spun off Altera but I imagine they’d still have a license.
I'm not sure Altera would have had an architectural license. You don't need that to hook a hard core up to your fpga fabric.
Re: Intel Foundry demonstrates first Arm-based chip on 18a node
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably Intel’s fumble when Apple asked them for better performance per watt for the laptop CPUs and whether they wanted the iPhone CPU business back in 2006.
A more recent motivation might be Apple's switch to in-house ARM for MacOS for similar reasons.
Well, they’re already funding so much ARM custom design, it’s not that incremental to tweak and scale for their laptops.