Monday, February 4th 2008
Intel Single-core Silverthorne to Sport HyperThreading (HT)
Intel has spilled a few more details about Silverthorne, its upcoming 45nm processor for UMPCs (Ultra-Mobile PC) and mobile internet devices (MIDs). Silverthorne was developed from the ground up for low-power devices, and Intel said today that the chip will consume no more than 2W of power and support HyperThreading (HT) technology. This means that although the Silverthorne is a single-core chip, it will appear to the host device as a two-core chip. It's unlikely to deliver the same performance boost that adding a second true core does, but it will deliver a significant speed improvement over the single-core parts that have been used in UMPCs to date. Intel didn't say how fast Silverthorne will run, but it did claim the design will scale to deliver 2GHz clock speeds with a 1W power consumption "some time in the future". Silverthorne will be paired with the 'Paulsbo' integrated chipset to form 'Menlow', Intel's next-gen UMPC platform. They're all expected to come to market in the April/May timeframe.
Source:
Reg Hardware
21 Comments on Intel Single-core Silverthorne to Sport HyperThreading (HT)
I was impressed with my E8200 at 27watts :p
thats one hell of a CPU for a laptop, or even a media PC (that CPU will easily be enough for HD media)
I'm optimistic about performance, because intel just havent gone backwards since the release of the core architecture :)
Assume for a minute it is as fast as a Core2 (single thread) at a 2W TDP. How is there a market left for Core2 then? They'd just glue 16 of these together for 32W and have a killer CPU.
I think we should look at VIA for a reference of low power performance.
My reasoning was based that i can run 720p media from a 2.2Ghz P4 (478, no HT)
No matter what, this thing with HT will be faster, and a hella more efficient power wise.
Media PC + uber low power use = WIN
That said. Well, even a 2.0 GHz Netburst CPU could handle HD Video content. So I'm sure this could go head on against the latest C7 from VIA. Maybe not for entertainment applications but more so for embedded solutions and the processor could come in BGA package.
They could use this as an excuse to push a new CPU socket, chipset and whole new CPU onto everyone.
Assuming this is a cheap processor to create (to be low powered, I'd guess it's got smaller die size, small process, etc.), Intel could easily add a bunch together a make a good turn over, from selling the same processor, slightly modified for its purpose.
Want it in a smart phone? Lower the speed, cut some cache, got yourself an efficient, fast, low powered CPU.
Want it in a UMPC? Don't bother changing a thing, even simpler.
Want it in a laptop? Make it a quad (at 2W, I think they can easily make a quad fit into the thermal specs of a light laptop, let alone a larger laptop).
Want it in a desktop? Make it into a 16-core CPU, and up the speed.
Still, performance probably won't be nearing Core Solo, but it would be good if it did.
Well, can't complain, a gigahertz per watt is mighty fine.
If nothing else, HT makes for an impressive Task Manager ;) :D
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