UMPC: 2007 = Menlow, 2008 = Moorestown

[Lazy8s]

The encroachment into personal computing by increasingly functional, ARM based smartphones will be challenged by Intel with the development of PC compatible platforms custom designed for the portable sector.


Slides and an article at http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/news.php?tid=777324&starttime=0&endtime=0

...At IDF Beijing, Intel then demonstrated its Menlow platform. Targeted for 2008, Menlow contains a new 64-bit processor with clock frequencies near 2 GHz , DDR2 memory running at 400MHz or 533MHz, solid-state NAND flash memory and discrete graphics processing...

...Before Menlow devices make it to the mainstream, Intel this week announced another major milestone for its ultra-mobile platform. Called Moorestown, Intel revealed that by roughly mid 2009, we will be able to see devices that consume 20 times less power than devices available in 2006...

...What sets Moorestown apart from previous processors is the fact that it combines CPU, GPU and memory controller functions into one chip...

http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=7167

Imagination Technologies recently provided an update on the status of the PowerVR SGX licenses Intel has taken:

...Our partnership with Intel in the personal computing/UMPC segment is progressing well, with additional projects committed. We expect this to lead to product shipment towards the latter part of our 07/08 financial year...

http://imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?ID=671

Imgtec's SGX roadmap shows the schedule of availability for various SGX cores, with the first two cores in 2006 expected to lead to end products in H1 2008. The SGX530 is a cellphone core, but the 535 is for "portable, consumer and automotive devices":



The graphics performance of the SGX535 hasn't been revealed, but it's positioned a marginal step ahead on the chart of the highest-end handheld core which is claimed to reach "1200Mpix/sec @ 200MHz with even higher Z and stencil fill rate" and polygon throughput of "13.5Mpoly/sec @ 200MHz".

 

[roninja]

Guess this now all makes more sense after the IDF presentation yesterday.

 

[Ailuros]

The graphics performance of the SGX535 hasn't been revealed, but it's positioned a marginal step ahead on the chart of the highest-end handheld core which is claimed to reach "1200Mpix/sec @ 200MHz with even higher Z and stencil fill rate" and polygon throughput of "13.5Mpoly/sec @ 200MHz".

That's SGX555 in that chart (if you mean the last chip on the upper right corner). If you re-check the SGX pdf on IMG's homesite you'll see a claimed die size of 20,3mm^2@65nm, 4.0 Gigapixels/s and 100M Polys/s at just 200MHz.

I'd bet that the above translates into 8 TMUs * 200MHz * 2.5 Overdraw and that the core frequency is way too modest for 65nm. 200MHz should be a piece of cake at 90nm.

 

[deviantchild]

nothing anybody on here hasn't seen, but a nice little collection of future toys:-
http://onlyumpc.com/tag/menlow sorry if i missed this link having been posted already.

 

[caboosemoose]

I saw Silverthorne in the silicon at IDF. It's tiny. The Menlow platform isn't low power enough for smartphone-like devices, but Moorestown might be.

If these things turn out as good as Intel claim, it;s going to be seriously sexy stuff.

 

[roninja]

How would Moorestown stack up to say OMAP3?

 

[DavidC]

Silverthorne is just too impressive for me. I hope it lives up to what they say. 0.9-1.86GHz, 64-bit, Hyperthreading, 533MHz FSB with variants with TDP of 0.5 to 2.0W. Integrated graphics with DX9+Extensions, OpenGL 2.0. Battery life of 6-9 hours on a 18Wh. I know what you guys think of G965, but the latest driver developements(at least for XP) has done quite a lot for the IGP.

With UMPCs based on Menlow platform costing $1000, this is a steal imo. I'll definitely obtain one next year. The aspect of running PC games like WoW on a Palm-top sized PC is too much for me . Possibly I can also get DX9 version of Crysis running, and even at slide-show, it would be definitely something.

 

[Lazy8s]

Imgtec's emphasis on the multithreadedness of their shader units makes me wonder whether they're unlike the ALUs of other architectures.

Perhaps they're more robust but fewer in number, like specialized, mini Metagence cores or something similar. An SGX535 processor might need only two shader units, for example.

 

[Ailuros]

Imgtec's emphasis on the multithreadedness of their shader units makes me wonder whether they're unlike the ALUs of other architectures.

I'm daring to guess they're scalar units (always as meant in the GPU and not in the CPU realm to avoid confusion). Other than that IMG ponders actually on something IMO that they call internally superthreading instead of multithreading for the META core.

Remains to be seen if the SGX has been built on similar foundations and then if there's any substantial difference or it's just marketing wash.

http://www.audiodesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183701195

Perhaps they're more robust but fewer in number, like specialized, mini Metagence cores or something similar. An SGX535 processor might need only two shader units, for example.

Hmmm while checking that roadmap above it's slightly above the SGX530 (highest end PDA/mobile, lowest end automotive thingy). I can't figure out how they could scale ALU amounts, only TMUs since it's easier to do some backwards speculative math with fillrates.

I'd figure the 530/535 might have 2 TMUs with an unknown amount of ALUs. If each ALU should equal something alike 16 SIMD, even one ALU could be still enough for those. Without having any idea what they've exactly done, I would exclude the idea of MIMD though; it would cost IMHLO too much in transistors with questionable benefits for the cost. An internal SIMD/"external" MIMD connection between multiple ALUs still seems to make more sense to me than anything else.

 

[roninja]

Poulsbo appears to be the GMA500 which again unconfirmed but should be SGX535.

 

[RussSchultz]

Sorry for the business related shout out, but if there's any lurking Intel-ians willing to give up the Moorestown bus-dev, product manager, or architect contacts via pm, I'd appreciate it.