Intel Raptor Lake’ power consumption can be reduced by up to 25% by supporting DLVR technology
Raptor Lake is an improved version of Alder Lake, belonging to Intel’s 13th generation Core series. It is said that Raptor Lake still uses the big.LITTLE hybrid architecture, Intel 7 process, and LGA 1700 base, compatible with the motherboard used by Alder Lake-S, and is expected to be released at the end of 2022. The difference is that the Performance Core will be changed from the Golden Cove architecture to the Raptor Cove architecture, and the Efficient Core will still use the Gracemont architecture.
Recently, a topic appeared on Reddit about the digital linear voltage regulator (DLVR) technology that will be used by Raptor Lake. This is a new voltage regulator technology. Some people found that Intel started this plan in January 2020, but the related patents were not announced until July 8 this year. Intel first mentioned DLVR technology in the PPT released in March 2021, but did not explain the specific content.
In the description of Intel’s patent, DLVR means a digital linear voltage regulator, which is to connect an additional voltage regulator and the main regulator in parallel, which can reduce the power consumption of the processor. Intel said that DLVR technology requires lower costs and adjustments are not complicated. Intel explained in the document that in order to solve the sudden load requirements of units such as CPU, GPU, or SoC, it is very important to determine the input voltage of the regulator. If it is higher than the necessary voltage of the regulator, more power consumption and heat will be generated.
According to Intel, through DLVR technology, the voltage can be controlled more precisely to reduce power consumption. After using DLVR technology, the CPU voltage can be reduced by 160mV, which means that the power consumption of the CPU will be reduced by about 20% to 25%. The 21% voltage drop is equivalent to about 7% performance improvement.
It is rumored that Intel will increase the number of E-Cores in Raptor Lake from 8 to 16, and it will improve the cache design of the processor and increase support for LPDDR5X memory. DLVR technology can bring performance and power efficiency improvements, but some functions may require 700 series motherboards to support.
