Quote:
Originally Posted by The Von Matrices
With a quad-core die taking only 160mm^2, I wonder how making native dual-core die even makes sense anymore. Will a dual-core version of Haswell exist or will that only be 4+ cores?
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Keep in mind that the Wolfdale die with 6MB of L2 cache was 107 mm2, and the Wolfdale-3M die with 3MB of L2 was only 82 mm2. The integration of memory controller PCI-Express controllers and a GPU have really added to die sizes.
The Ivy Bridge dual core die with 4MB L3 and HD4000 graphics will be approximately
118mm2. Despite a two node manufacturing advantage, Ivy Bridge dual cores are still larger than Wolfdale. There will probably also be another Ivy dual core die with 3MB L3 and HD 2500 with a die size below 100 mm2.
Given that Haswell is still on 22nm, has a larger GPU than Ivy, and supposedly has 1MB L2 cache per core (vs 256k), I expect there will still be native dual core dies.