To maximize the clock rate of its 32 nm Saltwell-based core, Intel employed a feature that opportunistically exposed additional P-states based on available thermal headroom. Silvermont’s implementation of this is apparently more similar to Turbo Boost in that the burst frequency is managed in hardware according to thermal, electrical, and power measurements. More important than the extra speed you get from this burst mode, though, is how it handles the ride back down.
Presently, there are mobile devices that will run at full-speed until they’re thermally overwhelmed, at which point they throttle back dramatically to recover. It’s jarring enough to affect the user experience. Intel is saying that Silvermont will handle those situations more elegantly, stepping back clock rate naturally before a thermal event is triggered.
The SoC’s power budget can be shared between the cores and other IP on the die, including third-party IP. Graphics is probably the most notable. The illustration below describes this behavior pretty clearly: cores can share power, cores can borrow budget from the graphics (which spins down), and cores can burst up dynamically, even with graphics active, if the thermal situation is favorable enough. Intel says the concepts come from Turbo Boost, but the algorithms and implementation mechanisms are different.
Coming back the other direction, Intel enables a lot of familiar core power state functionality, with the addition that cores can drop into C6 independently, whereas they couldn’t before. And because Silvermont is module-based, Intel introduced sub-states allowing software policy-based control of the L2 cache’s contents, too. Building on the S0ix connected standby system states introduced back in 2010 with the Moorsetown platform, Silvermont can now retain the state of the core through SoC standby mode transitions. This means you can resume from those modes faster, though Intel wasn’t clear on how much faster.


.. is the first thing came to my mind when i started reading about the cores. but it's not exactly like bd, it's different. still.. it made me chuckle. amd deserves the credit.
i wonder if future intel cpus ($330+ core i7) will have the same core system instead of htt....
edit2: rodney dangerfield FTW! \o/
Well, it's just the cache that's shared in this one, no actual execution resources.
i noticed the lack of information on the integrated graphics part. having a powerful cpu isn't enough for atom. the gpu part has always been the weakest point for intel. kabini otoh, will have gcn-based, hsa enabled, low power igpu.
Any more info on this "system agent" and IDI? I'm also surprised the cores can't talk directly to each other. If you want to use many small cores to tackle a problem together that's fine. But give them the ability to do it quickly.
It seems Intel is getting the ball rolling on their smaller chips. I just hope that when they finally do they ditch the Atom name. Bad chips, get a new name for those that aren't.
Too true. Not a single mention of it probably means it won't be anything to brag about. Intel isn't really the type of company that likes to hide breakthroughs anywhere. Im expecting them to finally be able to do 1080p tablets and thats about it.
Silvermont may arrive a few months before the 20nm process for ARM chips is ready, but will that be enough, considering Intel's chips cost 2-3x more than the ARM equivalent? Probably not.
They're not a bad processor, you just need to properly impliment them. Of course they won't work if you demand split-second responsiveness or are looking to play games, but for somebody looking to set up a basic windows or linux box they're more than acceptable.
Yes, you are right that is why I like you because you are always using Intel's product and even you have not and vow to not buy any AMD based product in your lifetime. Even I'm using Intel Pentium based notebook because it's better than unreliable buggy crap like current AMD A* processors. That is why when I'm looking for notebook, I will look for Intel's blue sticker in the laptop, because it always superior.
Yes you are right, there is no way crappy kabini will outperform Silvermount, the longer AMD's engineers work for AMD, their IQs will decrease, because as a loser company, AMD can not feed its engineers appropriately, ask it to former AMDer like Michael M. Chu, who currently works for Intel.
No, Intel Silvermount will be 4K capable at least in video decode. AMD will not do that because AMD does not have money to buy the necessary IPs that cover the 4K video decode.