Intel continues with dual-die strategy

Posted on Tuesday, January 30 2007 @ 1:25 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck

With its quad-core 45nm Penryn processors Intel will continue with its dual-die strategy. According to the Inq it may take until Nehalem before the chip giant will have a native quad-core processor.

There may be no chance of a native quad-core product until Nehalem. We hoped to see Intel do something about that, like say put four cores, each with say 2MB L2 cache, plus a shared 16MB L3 cache, on a single 1+ billion transistor die - or, at least, as we mentioned before, do a simple quad-core with a single 8MB shared L2 between them (however, multi-porting and ultrahigh bandwidth required may prove to be a challenge there).

Here's a picture of a dual-core Penryn die. Intel uses two of these to make a quad-core Penryn processor:

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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Re: Intel continues with dual-die strategy
by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 30 2007 @ 4:28 CET

It works perfectly well in real life apps and it keeps the costs down by using dual dies. I say it's a keeper.

Re: Intel continues with dual-die strategy
by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 30 2007 @ 5:30 CET

Indeed, Intel is doing fine these days.

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