Intel Tremont CPU Microarchitecture: Power Efficient, High-Performance x86

Name: Intel Tremont
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, October 24, 2019, 01:30 PM EDT

Intel has also made some updates to Tremont’s instruction set as well, and incorporated some new, and existing, technologies that weren’t previously present in its low-power x86 microarchitectures.

Intel Tremont: Hardened For Better Security With Significant IPC Gains

Because Tremont is destined for micro-servers and edge devices, where specialized accelerators may also be used, Intel has equipped Tremont with instructions designed to optimally dispatch work and synchronize accelerators. Tremont also features support for Speed Shift, which has been present on its desktop CPUs since Skylake. Speed Shift allows the processor to ramp up and down, via a hardware-based controller, to improve responsiveness. Tremont also features Intel’s Trusted Execution and Boot Guard technologies for more hardened security support, in addition to support for total memory encryption.

All told, the changes made to Intel's Tremont microarchitecture result in significant IPC gains versus Goldmont Plus -- on average by about 30%. The single-thread performance improvements above were obtained with early samples and without any code changes as well, so with further optimization at the software level, even better performance than what is represented here is possible. Relative power characteristics versus Sunny Cove show a significant reduction as well.

The Foveros-based hybrid Lakefield processor is the first commercially-ready product to feature the Intel Tremont microarchitecture with its low-power cores. As we now know, Lakefield will also be powering the upcoming Microsoft Surface Neo. In addition, Intel’s Snow Ridge SoC, which targets 5G deployments will leverage Tremont.

Intel beleives Tremont-based processors will enable a new wave of innovative form factors for client devices, more efficient data center products, and new-found applications for the internet of things (IoT). By leveraging Intel’s Foveros 3D packaging technology, Tremont can be integrated within a broad range of technologies and customized for specific applications and designs. We already know of one customer, but considering Tremont's expected performance and efficiency, there will surely be others on the horizon as well.

Tags: Intel, CPU, processor, Low-power, tremont, microarchitecture

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com