First Look: PIII 800E Cc0 Stepping

[VladTrishkin]

O/C link

Some interesting info on the new Cc0's, this is a 1.7V model...

 

[vvvvvv]

cool

 

[BurntKooshie]

This is good news, as this means that the die size has been further reduced down to 90mm^2 . (Well, bad news for people trying to mount heatsinks properly on it, and bad news because it means a higher wattage/area ratio), but the good news is that it should also reduce power consumption even further, right?

 

[bonkers325]

yeilds are not that good

 

[VladTrishkin]

<< This is good news, as this means that the die size has been further reduced down to 90mm^2 . (Well, bad news for people trying to mount heatsinks properly on it, and bad news because it means a higher wattage/area ratio), but the good news is that it should also reduce power consumption even further, right? >>



-Well, I am a bit confused... I will have to get more info from Intel later on. BK, why would you think that the die is reduced in physical size? It's just a new stepping CPU; the core is still the same. I don?t know how to explain the .5V increase. Power consumption would be higher, Amperage is same, and higher voltage = higher Wattage...

Maybe PM knows a bit about this?

 

[BurntKooshie]

It has been stated that the &quot;next&quot; revision of the core would reduce the core to 90mm^2. Well, this is the Co stepping, which is after the infamouse Bo stepping The Bo stepping reduced the die size from 106mm^2, to 104mm^2. Check out sandpile, and you'll see that I'm not just pulling this out of thin air.

<< the good news is that it should also reduce power consumption even further, right? >>

I said that because that's what I thougth, and I stated it as a question, because I thought that would show that I was uncertain of it....maybe I'm wrong.

Lets assume that the wattage is the same (we'll assume this, because the higher end P3's are already using 1.7v), then the first part of my statement I'm sure of (the &quot;bad&quot; part). A smaller area, and the same heat output, means more heat to dissipate in the same amount of area (bad). The qualifying part of this is, I don't know that the wattage will remain the same.

 

[Stro]

Are all the new cC0 stepping processors using 1.7V compared to the old 1.65V on cA2 and cB0? If so, all I have to do is request a 1.7V P3 processor when I buy it and I will automatically get a cC0 stepping one?

 

[pm]

There was a 5% core shrink from the cB0 stepping to the cC0 stepping, so the die size is smaller (see page 52 of the datasheet for details). This is an optical technique, so there was very little changed in the core (it's not a &quot;core redesign&quot; as has been stated elsewhere). The voltage was increased because the process has been tweaked to allow slightly higher voltage operation. As far as power, I'm not certain of this, but I think it's a wash - the higher voltage increases power, but the shrink reduces power by an approximately equal amount. Intel is not giving any guidance as to increased or decreased thermal or thermal requirements for the cC0/686h processors - which is how I came to this conclusion..

 

[Dark4ng3l]

I think they increased the voltage so more of their chips would clock higher. It's just a sneaky way of doing it with a new stepping.

 

[compuwiz1]

Intel has, in the past upped the voltage to increase yeilds...by their own admission. Just can't find where I read it.