Intel will first launch a 7nm CPU with RISC-V architecture

In March of this year, Intels new CEO Pat Kissinger announced that the new Core platform (Meteor Lake) will first launch the 7nm process and plans to start shipping to customers in 2023.

However, the "pro son" has not yet appeared, but the "latecomer" has taken the lead in stealing the limelight.

According to the latest news, Intel plans to cede the 7nm CPU starting rights to the Horse Creek platform cooperating with SiFive, and advance the time to market to the second half of 2022.

In other words, as soon as next year, we will be able to see 7nm process Intel CPU.

The first 7nm process, where is the strength of the Horse Creek platform

According to Intel's official introduction, the new Horse Creek platform will be based on the SiFive high-performance core Performance P550 and will use its own 7nm process.

Unlike the x86 architecture of the Meteor Lake platform, the Horse Creek platform will use the RISC-V architecture.

In other words, in terms of release time, the 7nm CPU of the RISC-V architecture will debut earlier than the 7nm CPU of the x86 architecture.

Does this mean that the 7nm process of the x86 architecture still needs to be polished? Or is it to show SiFive?

According to foreign media reports, the 7nm Meteor Lake processor has entered the stage of completing the design verification, and samples will be released at the end of the second half of this year, so the shipment time in 2023 is only a conservative estimate.

Therefore, Intel should solve many technical problems in the process of polishing compared with before. The only possibility is to accelerate its layout in the RISC-V field.

In addition to the release time, Intel did not disclose more details of the Horse Creek platform. It is not clear whether Intel is centering on the RISC-V core or using it as an auxiliary acceleration core.

But what is certain is that Intel no longer limits itself to the x86 architecture.

From the introduction of the SiFive official website, we can know that the Performance P550 core is the highest performance RISC-V processor on the market.

Give up on x86? Intel's first 7nm CPU is actually RISC-V architecture

In terms of specific parameters, the SPEC2006int test unit GHz score of the Performance P550 core reached 8.65. The core supports Linux and fully supports the RISC-V vector extension v1.0rc.

It uses a 13-stage pipeline, three launches, and out-of-order execution micro-architecture. Each core has its own 32KB first-level instruction cache, 32KB first-level data cache, and second-level cache. A single cluster has up to 4 cores and shares 4MB of third-level cache.

Give up on x86? Intel's first 7nm CPU is actually RISC-V architecture

Holding x86 and RISC-V, Intel's foundry ambitions

Why does Intel want to acquire SiFive? The answer is obvious: I hope to include the RISC-V IP system in the bag before the "three-part world" processor architecture is established.

As far as the current CPU market is concerned, the x86 architecture occupies the PC, server, and other fields, while the ARM architecture focuses on the mobile phone, Internet of Things, and other fields, and has a strong momentum to enter the desktop.

Although the performance of the two architectures is good, there are shortcomings: it is difficult to obtain IP authorization, and there are too many restrictions.

The x86 architecture is tightly held in Intel's hands and is currently only licensed to chip companies such as AMD and Spreadtrum.

Although the ARM architecture can be directly purchased for authorization, it is expensive, and the CPU core is not allowed to be extended.

As a rising star, the RISC-V architecture does not have these limitations. The advantage of the RISC-V architecture is that it is an open-source architecture, and the company is incorporated in Switzerland and does not represent the political stance of any country/region. Its open-source properties give users a lot of freedom, so more and more semiconductor companies switch to RISC-V architecture.

Give up on x86? Intel's first 7nm CPU is actually RISC-V architecture

As the world's first semiconductor company based on the RISC-V architecture, although SiFive has only been established for 6 years, it already has more than 100 licenses on the RISC-V architecture processor. Six of the semiconductor companies are SiFive customers.

Prior to Nvidia's acquisition of Arm, many Arm customers were worried about its neutrality and gave up cooperating with it and turned their attention to SiFive, which has no political stance.

This also gives RISC-V an opportunity to develop ecology. As far as Intel is concerned, an IP library can be obtained through this acquisition, which can be used for its own chips, or it can provide licenses.

After the new CEO Pat Kissinger took office, we saw the substantial changes he brought to Intel. The most important of these is the creation of the IDM 2.0 plan.

In the future, Intel will continue to maintain its own factories and continue to develop advanced technology. At the same time, Intel will provide foundry services to other manufacturers.

Combined with the previously announced x86 licensing plan, if an IC chip company finds Intel foundry, x86 and RISC-V architectures can all be selected.

The addition of SiFive makes Intel's foundry system more comprehensive.

Responding to Nvidia, Intel begins the battle for CPU architecture

Just like the "Nvidia + Arm" model, the combination of "Intel + SiFive" will also become one of the blockbuster news in the semiconductor industry.

Compared with its direct rival AMD in the CPU field, Intel is more afraid of the "rising star" of Nvidia. Nvidia, which started from GPU, has stepped on the dividends of technological progress in every step in the past few years, whether it is AI or blockchain. Nearly a monopoly, in addition, after NVIDIA completed the layout of GPU, APU, and DPU, it bought Arm for 40 billion US dollars. This is obviously the CPU market, Intels old business.

If AMD is still carrying the x86 banner, then Nvidia may use the ARM architecture to grab the x86 market share, and the Apple M1 chip is the best example.

If this acquisition is successful, it will cause a big blow to Nvidia and Arm.

Judging from the current news, the two companies are still in the stage of cooperation and exchange. After Intel acquired SiFive, SiFive still maintains independent operations and will not change the key position of neutrality.

As for SiFive, it has always hoped to change the relatively weak situation of RISC-V in terms of overall technical strength and industrial ecology through acquisition and cooperation.

Give up on x86? Intel's first 7nm CPU is actually RISC-V architecture

Finally, after the United States restricted the use of ARM architecture for national security interests, Chinese semiconductor companies are also interested in RISC-V chip architecture, which also brings new opportunities to the development of RISC-V.

The three-part structure of x86, ARM, and RISC-V will become the mainstream in the future. In any case, the war on CPU architecture has already begun.