Tremont (microarchitecture)

Tremont (microarchitecture). Tremont is a low-power x86-64 microprocessor microarchitecture designed by Intel and introduced in late 2019. It serves as the successor to the Goldmont Plus design and is primarily utilized within the Intel Atom and Intel Pentium Silver processor lines. The architecture is engineered for efficiency in a diverse range of platforms, including entry-level laptops, IoT devices, and network infrastructure.

Overview

Tremont represents a significant evolution in Intel's low-power core designs, aiming to deliver a substantial performance-per-watt improvement over its predecessors. It was officially disclosed at the Intel Architecture Day 2018 alongside the high-performance Sunny Cove microarchitecture. The core is designed to be highly scalable and configurable, allowing it to be deployed in everything from compact embedded systems to multi-core configurations for client computing. Its development was influenced by the growing market demands for efficient processing in always-connected mobile devices and edge computing scenarios.

Features

The Tremont microarchitecture introduced several new features to the low-power segment. It includes support for the AVX-512 instruction set, specifically the foundational AVX-512F subset, marking its introduction to the Atom lineage. The design also incorporates enhanced security features, such as hardware mitigations for Spectre-type vulnerabilities. Other notable capabilities include improved branch prediction accuracy, a deeper out-of-order execution window, and a redesigned decode front-end. These enhancements collectively target both general-purpose performance and specialized computational workloads.

Design

The internal design of Tremont focuses on increasing instruction-level parallelism while maintaining a tight power envelope. It employs a decoupled front-end with a novel clustered out-of-order execution structure. The cache hierarchy was reorganized, featuring a larger mid-level cache that is shared among a cluster of cores, improving data sharing and reducing latency. The execution units were optimized for common integer and vector operations, and the memory subsystem was enhanced with better prefetching algorithms. This modular design allows it to be efficiently combined in multi-core SoC configurations with other intellectual property blocks.

Process technology

Tremont cores were initially manufactured using Intel's 10nm process technology, specifically the 10nm+ node. This transition to a more advanced lithography node from the 14nm used for Goldmont Plus was a key factor in achieving its power efficiency and performance density goals. The use of this process enabled higher transistor counts and improved switching characteristics, which were leveraged for the architectural expansions. Subsequent products featuring Tremont cores have also been fabricated on refined versions of this 10nm process.

Products

Tremont cores have been integrated into several notable product families. They form the basis for the Lakefield hybrid processor, where they were combined with a Sunny Cove core using Intel Foveros 3D packaging. They are also used in the Elkhart Lake platform for IoT and embedded applications, and in the Jasper Lake platform for entry-level Chromebooks and mini PCs. These products are marketed under brands such as the Intel Atom x6000E series, Intel Pentium Silver, and Intel Celeron processors.

Successor

Tremont was succeeded by the Gracemont microarchitecture, which was first implemented in the Alder Lake hybrid processors for the client market. Gracemont further scales performance and efficiency, featuring in a configuration of up to four cores sharing a L2 cache cluster. This design became part of Intel's performance hybrid architecture, working alongside high-performance Golden Cove cores. The evolution from Tremont to Gracemont continued Intel's focus on scalable, efficient cores for a widening array of computing segments. Category:Intel microarchitectures Category:2019 in computing