News

Intel today disclosed more details about its new low power IA microarchitecture, which is the basis of the 45nm high-k metal gate Silverthorne processor being targeted for first-generation Mobile Internet Devices.

• This microarchitecture will be fully compatible with the Core 2 Duo instruction set, is based on dual-code, dual-issue, in-order execution and implements a 16-stage processor pipeline. The microarchitecture will implement ground-breaking power management techniques such as Deep Power Down (C6) state, non-grid clock distribution, power-optimized register-file, clock gating, CMOS bus mode and split IO power supply to aggressively reduce dynamic and leakage power.
• As a result of these innovative power management techniques, the 45nm high-k metal gate Silverthorne processor is expected to achieve a 10x lower thermal power level (compared to the Ultra Low Voltage single-core Intel processors in 2006) while delivering high performance to run the full Internet and breadth of software applications.
• The microarchitecture, which was built from the ground up, will also deliver sub-watt performance and a 2 GHs speed at one watt some time in the future.