Intel will bring 3D stacked cache to small chip designs
If one were to ponder AMD’s most laudable technological advancement in processors over the past couple of years, a myriad of enthusiasts would undoubtedly extol the virtues of the 3D V-Cache technology. This innovation has engendered marked performance enhancements in certain workloads, thus conferring AMD with a competitive edge over Intel processors.
According to TomsHardware, following his address on innovation at the “Intel Innovation” summit, Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, engaged with the media. He broached the subject of implementing a 3D stacked cache in Intel’s product array and once more hinted at potential collaborative ventures with NVIDIA.
“When you reference V-Cache, you’re talking about a very specific technology that TSMC does with some of its customers as well. Obviously, we’re doing that differently in our composition, right? And that particular type of technology isn’t something that’s part of Meteor Lake, but in our roadmap, you’re seeing the idea of 3D silicon where we’ll have cache on one die, and we’ll have CPU compute on the stacked die on top of it, and obviously using EMIB that Foveros we’ll be able to compose different capabilities.”
“We feel very good that we have advanced capabilities for next-generation memory architectures, advantages for 3D stacking, for both little die, as well as for very big packages for AI and high-performance servers as well. So we have a full breadth of those technologies. We’ll be using those for our products, as well as presenting it to the Foundry (IFS) customers as well,” Gelsinger concluded.
Presently, TSMC is responsible for manufacturing and packaging NVIDIA’s data center GPUs. However, they have perennially been hard-pressed to satiate market demands—a situation that might persist till 2025. To ensure timely deliveries, NVIDIA has been on the lookout for alternative manufacturers, with Samsung ardently vying for such contracts. Indeed, Intel emerges as a potential contender, a prospect not lost on Gelsinger.
Indications are rife that Intel and NVIDIA might forge a more intimate alliance in forthcoming chip development. However, finalizing such an agreement will inevitably take time. Earlier this year, at the Computex 2023 event, Jensen Huang articulated efforts towards diversifying chip manufacturing, mentioning receipt of test chips manufactured via Intel’s foundry service—the results of which appeared promising. Theoretically, Intel might even entertain the prospect of amalgamating its own CPU with NVIDIA’s GPU within a singular package.
