 | |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | November 4, 2021; 4 years ago (November 4, 2021)[1] |
| Designed by | Intel |
| Common manufacturer |
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| Performance | |
| Max.CPUclock rate | 1.0 GHz to 5.5 GHz |
| Cache | |
| L1cache | 80 KB per core:
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| L2 cache | Per core:
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| Architecture and classification | |
| Technology node | Intel 7 (previously known as 10ESF) |
| Instruction set | x86,x86-64 |
| Extensions | |
| Products, models, variants | |
| Product code names |
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| History | |
| Predecessors |
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| Successor | Raptor Cove |
Golden Cove is acodename for aCPUmicroarchitecture developed byIntel and released in November 2021. It succeeds four microarchitectures:Sunny Cove,Skylake,Willow Cove, andCypress Cove.[2][3][4] It is fabricated using Intel'sIntel 7process node, previously referred to as 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin (10ESF).
The microarchitecture is used in the high-performance cores (P-core) of the 12th-generationIntel Core processors (codenamed "Alder Lake") and fourth-generationXeon Scalable server processors (codenamed "Sapphire Rapids").[4][5]
Intel first unveiled Golden Cove during their Architecture Day 2020,[6] with further details released at the same event in August 2021.[7] Similar toSkylake, Golden Cove was described by Intel as a major update to the core microarchitecture, with Intel stating that it would "allow performance for the next decade of compute". Intel also described Golden Cove as the largest microarchitectural upgrade to the Core family in a decade, touting a 19% increase ininstructions per cycle (IPC) overCypress Cove.[7] At the event in 2021, Intel revealed theGracemont and Golden Cove architectures would both be bundled in a hybrid architecture into itsAlder Lake CPUs for desktops and laptops. It was described as "the successor to Intel's 10-nmSunny Cove microarchitecture."[8] It was also announced that the Golden Cove cores would support hyper-threading, which allows two threads to run on one core.[9] "P-cores" based on Golden Cove stand for "performance", while "E-cores" based on Gracemont stand for "efficient."[10]
In August 2021, Golden Cove design followed "theWillow Cove core inTiger Lake, the Sunny Cove core in Ice Lake, and the derivative Cypress Cove core in Rocket Lake."[11]
SucceedingWillow Cove, in 2021 the Golden Cove was described as competing against AMD'sZen 3 andZen 4-based processors. Golden Cove is based on the 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin node by Intel, which was later renamed toIntel 7.[12] When modifying Willow Cove, writesHardware Times, Intel announced in 2021 that both Golden Cove and Gracemont "expanded the back and front-end, improved theout-of-order execution (OoO) capabilities, and focused more on power efficiency and real-world performance."[12]
In January 2022,TechRadar noted that the upcoming Intel Alder Lake-P processors, mobile variants of Alder Lake with Golden Cove, could possibly use up to "six Golden Cove cores with 12 threads alongside eight Gracemont cores with eight threads," noting other permutations were also possible.[13] In April 2022, it was reported thatRaptor Lake, a "refresh" of Alder Lake, might utilize the Golden Cove and Gracemont cores.[14] It was also reported in April 2022 thatSapphire Rapids would utilize Golden Cove cores.[15]
According toAnandTech in August 2021, "Intel sees the Golden Cove as a major step-function update, with massive revamps of the fundamental building blocks of the CPU, going as far as calling it as allowing performance for the next decade of compute.[11]AnandTech in August 2021 also wrote that the last similar level of upgrades to Intel's "core front-end" wasSunny Cove, as compared to Willow Cove and Cypress Cove, which unlike Golden Cove "were more iterative designs focusing on the memory subsystem." Golden Cove was described as having "gigantic changes to the microarchitecture’s front-end", with Intel describing those changes as the largest upgrades to microarchitecture in a decade, sinceSkylake.[11]
The P-core Golden Cove microarchitecture supports six-wide decode, higher than the prior four, and has split the execution ports to allow for more operations to execute at once, enabling higherIPC andILP from workflow that can take advantage. Usually a wider decode consumes a lot more power, but Intel says that its micro-op cache (now 4K) and front-end are improved enough that the decode engine spends 80% of its time power gated."[16]
Intel describes a number of improvements over its predecessor,Sunny Cove.
The microarchitecture is used in the high-performance cores of the 12th generation of Intel Core hybrid processors (codenamed "Alder Lake") and the fourth generation of Xeon scalable processors (codenamed "Sapphire Rapids").
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | October 22, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-10-22) |
| Marketed by | Intel |
| Designed by | Intel |
| Common manufacturer |
|
| Performance | |
| Max.CPUclock rate | 1.2 GHz to 6.2 GHz |
| Cache | |
| L1cache | 80 KB per core:
|
| L2 cache | 2 MB per core |
| L3 cache | 3 MB per core |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Technology node | Intel 7 (previously known as 10ESF) |
| Instruction set | x86,x86-64 |
| Extensions | |
| Physical specifications | |
| Cores |
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| Products, models, variants | |
| Core names |
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| History | |
| Predecessor | Golden Cove |
| Successor | Redwood Cove |
Raptor Cove, released on October 20, 2022 withRaptor Lake processors, is a refresh of the Golden Cove microarchitecture with the following changes:
Raptor Cove is also used in theEmerald Rapids server processors.
Since Raptor Cove is basically identical to Golden Cove, 13th / 14th Gen Core models (such as i7-13700, i7-14700, i9-14900K) come with B0 stepping use Raptor Cove exclusively while others with different steppings (such as C0, H0, J0 and Q0) still use Golden Cove. Notably, some models come with multiple steppings (such as i5-13400F. i5-14400F and i7-13700HX) are using a different microarchitecture but they are selling at the same time.[citation needed]