Interesting information about ADL-S and the LGA1700 platform.
Looks like ADL-S will have both big+little cores as previously leaked, using the Golden Cove and Gracemont (with AVX512 support!!) cores.
I'm not sure what to make of that rumor. I can believe Alder Lake is big.LITTLE, but the rest just seems kinda off. By 2021-2022, one would hope DDR5 support is a given, so why is he even questioning it. PCIe 5.0 support should also be somewhat likely, if not for Alder Lake, then at least Meteor Lake timeline.
Also, skeptical of AVX-512 on Gracemont. AVX2 I can definitely see, but if AVX-512 support exists, it would definitely have to be through microcode only.
The small cores are for mobile, but S is going to be along for the ride. It does allow marketing to say the top model has 16 cores.
So something like:
i9: 8+8
i7: 8+4
i5: 6+0
i3: 4+0
I think they'll be quicker to cut the big cores than Atom cores. So something more like:
i9: 8+8
i7: 6+8
i5: 6+0
Maybe a 4+8 and 2+8 in there somewhere? Certainly complicates the lineup.
If they go the route of using MCM for Alderlake I assume it'll only be the IMC/PCI Express/Graphics that are on the seperate chip. Richie's assumption that Gracemont and Golden Cove will be seperated are completely ridiculous, because you lose any point of doing such a configuration.
Tremont cores are about 1/4th the size of Sunny Cove. If Gracemont and Golden Gove maintain that ratio, then it's easy to see why an 8 core Atom die would be pointless. Would be so tiny that the overhead wouldn't justify its existence. Far better to just have a single 8+8 die.
As for disaggregation, I think the most logical component to separate out first would be the GPU. They'd want the memory controller to be on the CPU/SoC die for latency reasons. Or they could go with an AMD-style IO die and a separate die for the cores. Lots of ways to split it up.