Transcript Intel`s New Processor Archetecture

Intel’s New Processor
Architecture
(The High-K gate)
What we will be covering:
• What is a transistor?
– What is “Leakage”
– Why is the High-K gate so great?
• The Nehalem Project (Core i7s)
– High-K gates
– 45nm technology
– Integration of memory controller
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What is a transistor?
• Does two things:
– Acts as switches for digital logic – allows them to
control a strong signal with a weak signal.
– And amplifies the signal
• Critical for cascading logic gates. Without amplification we
would only be able to send it through ~3 gates before the
signal becomes too “noisy”.
• In the world of digital logic, AND and OR do not
exist. Only NAND and NOR and NOT do.
– You can create AND and OR by combining NAND and
NOR and NOT.
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What does a NOT gate look like?
• NOT:
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What does NAND look like?
• NAND:
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What does NOR look like?
• NOR:
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This brings us to leakage
• Example: NOT gate.
– Even though A is high (+5 V) there is still some
current to F.
– This ties into thresholds
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New High-K gates
• "High-k" stands for high dielectric constant.
• “Old” transistors use silicon dioxide to make
their transistors.
• “New” High-K transistors use hafnium dioxide
for their transistors.
– Because high-k gate dielectrics can be several
times thicker, they reduce gate leakage by over
100 times compared to “old” transistors.
– Runs cooler: cooler = more power.
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Core i7s
• High-K gates allows intel to pack more transistors
into a die.
– More room for more stuff. Like a memory controller.
• Integrate memory controller directly onto the
processor.
– AMD already has been doing this for 5 years
• Faster transfer time between memory and
processor now (no more Front Side Bus)
– No more intermediate device.
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What is Front side Bus?
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References
• Intel:
http://www.intel.com/technology/silicon/high
-k.htm
• Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor
• Our Book: Computer Architecture and
Organization: An Integrated Approach
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