Please explain to me, Intel's new process–architecture–optimization model

Mockingbird

Senior member
Feb 12, 2017
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Intel used to have the tick-tock model, but it was recently replaced by process-architecture-optimization model

Tick - Westmere

Tock - Sandy Bridge

Tick - Ivy Bridge

Tock - Haswell

Tick (process) - Broadwell

Tock (architecture) - Skylake

(optimization) - Kaby Lake

??? - Coffee Lake

So, where exactly does Coffee Lake fit on this model?
 
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vailr

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,365
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Still waiting on the "fixed the Spectre/Meltdown" CPU's.
 

raghu78

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2012
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Coffeelake is basically Intel's admission that 10nm is badly delayed and has some major problems to still sort out. I think Cannonlake is not going to launch in any serious volume. The first real 10nm product from Intel will be 10+ based Icelake which is expected to launch in 5w tablet SKUs (ICL-Y) in holiday 2018 followed by 15-45w notebook SKUs (ICL-U) in H1 2019. Intel's manufacturing execution has let them down and they no longer have a process lead over the foundries. Whats going to be interesting is how Intel pick themselves up and execute the next 7nm node. TSMC is relentlessly marching forward with their process node roadmap and Intel do not want to fall behind otherwise things will get ugly.
 

ondma

Platinum Member
Mar 18, 2018
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Well, if the thread title is a serious question, and not just an excuse to bash intel for its problems with 10nm, you can find the answer in 30 seconds with Google: definition
 

IRobot23

Senior member
Jul 3, 2017
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Skylake = Kaby lake = Coffelake

No IPC, core or architectural changes/improvements.

Coffe adds 2 cores to LGA 1151 with extreme clocks. Even though it has 6 cores i7 8700K is best cpu for high frequencies and gaming. Some people might be dissapointed because of IPC, but 5GHz on 6C12T on more than 80% of i7 8700K is just insane.

AMD is pushing, Intel is trying to answer back, but intel has some problems lately. They have been sleeping and they are still saying about withdrawing from PC gaming.

So after sandy bridge i5 2500k/i7 2700k first cpu that are completely worth upgrading are i5 8600K/i7 8700k. People will always want more, but personaly intel suprised me with coffe.

I was expecting same arch/IPC, but clocks and more cores at that price were good surprise.
 

qookap

Member
Aug 17, 2015
27
2
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Tick - Westmere

Tick - Sandy Bridge
Tock - Ivy Bridge

Tick - Haswell
Tock - Broadwell

Tick - Skylake
Tock1 - Kaby Lake
Tock2 - Coffee Lake

Coffeelake had few improve on IPC.
 

IRobot23

Senior member
Jul 3, 2017
601
183
76
Tick - Westmere

Tick - Sandy Bridge
Tock - Ivy Bridge

Tick - Haswell
Tock - Broadwell

Tick - Skylake
Tock1 - Kaby Lake
Tock2 - Coffee Lake

Coffeelake had few improve on IPC.

no.
Everything is same. Maybe more cache give him bit advantage in some scenarios otherwise everything is in margin of error.
 

witeken

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2013
3,899
193
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Coffeelake is basically Intel's admission that 10nm is badly delayed and has some major problems to still sort out. I think Cannonlake is not going to launch in any serious volume. The first real 10nm product from Intel will be 10+ based Icelake which is expected to launch in 5w tablet SKUs (ICL-Y) in holiday 2018 followed by 15-45w notebook SKUs (ICL-U) in H1 2019. Intel's manufacturing execution has let them down and they no longer have a process lead over the foundries. Whats going to be interesting is how Intel pick themselves up and execute the next 7nm node. TSMC is relentlessly marching forward with their process node roadmap and Intel do not want to fall behind otherwise things will get ugly.
In 2015, Intel explicitly mentioned 10nm as the reason for higher R&D expenses. (In annual report.)

But since 2016 (so in 2016 and 2017), only 7nm has been mentioned as the reason for increased R&D expenses. So 7nm has been going in full swing for (over) two years now.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,583
996
126
Skylake = Kaby lake = Coffelake

No IPC, core or architectural changes/improvements.

Coffe adds 2 cores to LGA 1151 with extreme clocks. Even though it has 6 cores i7 8700K is best cpu for high frequencies and gaming. Some people might be dissapointed because of IPC, but 5GHz on 6C12T on more than 80% of i7 8700K is just insane.

AMD is pushing, Intel is trying to answer back, but intel has some problems lately. They have been sleeping and they are still saying about withdrawing from PC gaming.

So after sandy bridge i5 2500k/i7 2700k first cpu that are completely worth upgrading are i5 8600K/i7 8700k. People will always want more, but personaly intel suprised me with coffe.

I was expecting same arch/IPC, but clocks and more cores at that price were good surprise.
I get what you’re saying, but the iGPU feature upgrades going from Skylake to Kaby Lake are a pretty big deal actually. In fact, that’s specifically why I refused to buy any Skylake machines.
 

PPB

Golden Member
Jul 5, 2013
1,118
168
106
In haswell you also had an optinization, albeit an smaller one with devils canyon.

Thing is that because it didnt have a new gen number it isnt as visible as for example 6xxx to 7xxx (skylake refresh).

Sent from my XT1040 using Tapatalk
 

IRobot23

Senior member
Jul 3, 2017
601
183
76
I get what you’re saying, but the iGPU feature upgrades going from Skylake to Kaby Lake are a pretty big deal actually. In fact, that’s specifically why I refused to buy any Skylake machines.

Same iGPU. I don't know about features that are enabled/disable, but they are same.
Coffee lake added : fast 4K UHD, VP9 and more H.265
 

epsilon84

Golden Member
Aug 29, 2010
1,142
927
136
Skylake = Kaby lake = Coffelake

No IPC, core or architectural changes/improvements.

Coffe adds 2 cores to LGA 1151 with extreme clocks. Even though it has 6 cores i7 8700K is best cpu for high frequencies and gaming. Some people might be dissapointed because of IPC, but 5GHz on 6C12T on more than 80% of i7 8700K is just insane.

AMD is pushing, Intel is trying to answer back, but intel has some problems lately. They have been sleeping and they are still saying about withdrawing from PC gaming.

So after sandy bridge i5 2500k/i7 2700k first cpu that are completely worth upgrading are i5 8600K/i7 8700k. People will always want more, but personaly intel suprised me with coffe.

I was expecting same arch/IPC, but clocks and more cores at that price were good surprise.

Mostly accurate, though the official memory supported memory speeds did increase with each 14nm optimisation, ie. Skylake = DDR4 2133, Kaby = DDR4 2400, CFL = DDR4 2666. This doesn't mean much for enthusiasts running Z series motherboards as you can overclock the RAM anyway, but for non Z boards its somewhat important as I believe DDR4 2133 especially is quite a big bottleneck for say, a 6700K. This plus incremental clock speed improvements with each 'gen' (I'm being kind here) means that you get your ~10% gain in stock ST performance (obviously CFL is a much bigger jump for MT due to a 50% core increase) despite it being the same architecture.

I personally went from a 2500K to a 3770K to a 6700K and the gains were tangible with every upgrade. Obviously the biggest jump came from the 2500K to 3770K (doubling of threads), but the 6700K has a good 15 - 20% higher IPC than the 3770K, plus support for DDR4 means gaming is actually significantly faster on the 6700K, I was quite surprised by the difference.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,583
996
126
Same iGPU. I don't know about features that are enabled/disable, but they are same.
Coffee lake added : fast 4K UHD, VP9 and more H.265
That was added in Kaby Lake (7th gen).

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1095...ration-kaby-lake-i7-7700k-i5-7600k-i3-7350k/6

1-10_575px.png


1-11_575px.png


The above is important because there are real-world 4K h.265 HEVC 10-bit HDR videos that a laptop Kaby Lake Y or U machine can decode with low CPU usage that a Skylake i7-6700K can't with 100% CPU usage.

And perhaps most importantly, Kaby Lake adds 4K DRM support.
 

CatMerc

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2016
1,114
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Tick - Westmere

Tick - Sandy Bridge
Tock - Ivy Bridge

Tick - Haswell
Tock - Broadwell

Tick - Skylake
Tock1 - Kaby Lake
Tock2 - Coffee Lake

Coffeelake had few improve on IPC.
CFL has more cache, but due to having more cores it has a bit higher latency in the ring bus. The two together even out so the IPC is more or less the same.