Penryn

From ProPHOTO WIKI

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Changes 2.1 45nm Process 2.2 New Transistors 2.3 Additional Cache 2.4 New Instructions (SSE4) 3 Advantages 3.1 Reduced Power Consumption/Heat Output 3.2 Improved Performance 4 Variants 4.1 Yorkfield (Core 2 Quad Q9xxx/QX9xxx) 4.2 Wolfdale (Core 2 Duo E8xxx) 4.3 Harpertown (Xeon 54xx) 5 Availability 6 Successor 7 See Also

Introduction

Penryn is Intel's codename for their next generation 45nm microprocessors that will replace the current lineup of 65nm Core 2 offerings. While the actual design of the CPU is very similar to its predecessors, the underlying technology used in these processors is a major step forward. These improvements significant reduce power consumption (and hence heat output) of these processors, and should allow Intel to significantly increase clock speeds over the coming year.

Changes

45nm Process

The most obvious change in these processors is the use of a new 45nm manufacturing process. Amongst other things, this means that the components on the processor can be manufactured in less physical space, reducing the ammount of materials needed and increasing production yields. This translates into lower production costs which allows Intel the option of reducing prices.

Further, smaller feature sizes also reduces power consumption of the overall design. As the basic processor is similar to the Conroe-based designs, this means that the overall heat output and power consumption of these processors will also be reduced. Given that the Core 2 Quad processors were already running at high temperatures, this is a welcome step forward.

New Transistors

In order to achieve the process shrink, Intel had to design a new type of transistor (high-k + metal gate) which brings a number of additional advantages. Asside from helping to solve manufacturing problems, these transistors also draw considerably less energy than conventional designs. Combined with the power savings from the die shrink, this translates into a very significant reduction in power draw.

Additional Cache

As the die shrink decreased the surface area required by the processor, Intel also took the opportunity to increase the ammount of cache on Penryn-based processors. Each Wolfdale (Core 2 Duo E8xxx) core will now contain 6MB of onboard cache (versus 4MB for Conroe (Core 2 Duo E6xxx)). Further, as the Quad-core Yorkfield (Core 2 Quad Q9xxx) processors are simply two Wolfdale processors bonded together, they will offer a total of 12MB of onboard cache (up from 8MB in Kentsfield (Core 2 Quad Q6xxx)).

New Instructions (SSE4)

The only major change to the overall processor design, Intel added a number of new instructions to the Penryn processors. The new SSE4 instructions should help to improve multimedia performance, however they will generally require explicit support from software so this will not be immediately apparent to users.

Advantages

Reduced Power Consumption/Heat Output

As mentioned above, the design of these new processors should help to significant reduce their power consumption and heat output. While official numbers aren't currently available, tests indicate improvements of approximately 30% when operating at the same clockspeeds. Combined with the already high power efficiency of the Core Microarchitecture, this is a significant asset for this new family of processors.

Improved Performance

While not as dramatic as the power savings, the larger cache and additional instructions will provide modest improvements in system performance. With that said, the design changes in these processors provide Intel with more headroom than before and should allow higher clock speeds to be offered down the line. The current offerings don't currently reflect this, however as production ramps up we should see faster variations come to market.

Variants

Availability

The first processor in the Penryn family, the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650, became available on November 12th, 2007 followed shortly by the Wolfdale processors in early 2008. Yorkfield processors should begin to appear at the beginning of the second quarter, as they were delayed by unexpected production issues.

Successor

Using the same process improvements as Penryn, Intel will debut their new Nehalem microarchitecture in the second half of 2008. While Penryn is primarilly a process change, Nehalem will be a major change to the underlying architecture. This will bring features such as native four and eight core processors, an integrated memory controller and a new processor interconnect. Due to the significance of these changes, Nehalem will require a new socket and thus will not be compatible with current motherboards.

See Also

• Core Microarchitecture - Description of the Core Microarchitecture used by Penryn.