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Intel Details Power Management Advancements in Haswell
MojoKid writes "Intel's next-generation CPU architecture, codenamed Haswell, puts heavy emphasis on reducing power consumption. Pushing Haswell down to a 10W TDP is an achievement, but hitting these targets requires collaboration. Haswell will offer finer-grained control over areas of logic that were previously either on or off, up to and including specific execution units. These optimizations are impressive, particularly the fact that idle CPU power is approaching tablet levels, but they're only part of the story. Operating system changes matter as well, and Intel has teamed up with Microsoft to ensure that Windows 8 takes advantage of current and future hardware. Haswell's 10W target will allow the chip to squeeze into many of the convertible laptop/tablet form factors on display at IDF, while Bay Trail, the 22nm, out-of-order successor to Clover Trail, arrives in 2013 as well. Not to mention the company's demonstration of the first integrated digital WiFi radio. Folks have been trading blows over whether Intel could compete with ARM's core power consumption. Meanwhile, Santa Clara has been busy designing many other aspects of the full system solution for low power consumption and saving a lot of wattage in the process."
It's mildly amusing that Windows 8 is the first version to gain dynamic ticks, something Linux has had working since around 2007.
Contrary to other markets the mobile devices market is basically computer architecture agnostic. Since Intel cannot or do not want to manufacture CPUs cheaper than ARM licensees plus they still have lousy performance/watt their only remaining market is something which takes advantage of the vast catalog of pre-existing software for the x86 architecture namely Windows. I have little doubts Intel will eventually succeed to build a cheaper x86 CPU with better performance/watt than ARM given their manufacturing prowess and increasingly high amounts of integration they are providing. But it may take another processor generation or two.
It's mildly amusing that Windows 8 is the first version to gain dynamic ticks, something Linux has had working since around 2007.
What the hell is up with that? Was that even necessary?
"Folks have been trading blows over whether Intel could compete with ARM's core power consumption. " For the mobile markets, Here's the best numbers I could find on the various processor's power output: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20110921142759_Nvidia_Unwraps_Performance_Benchmarks_of_Tegra_3_Kal_El.html The 10W Intel processor is still ~8x outside the power output of a Tegra 3 at 1GHz/Core, and ~6.662x the power output of a OMAP4 processor. While Intel is clearly working on getting down to the ~1W power range, they still have a ways to go. They may get there, but until I see silicon, I'm not holding my breath for it.
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Wow.
I am shocked.
(yawn)
Windows has always been behind the curve. It didn't get a decent GUI until it blatantly copied the Mac OS in 1995 (trashcan, shutdown procedure, shortcuts tied to the desktop). Didn't get decent preemptive-multitasking until 10 years after the Commodre Amiga in 1985. Didn't have a web browser until 1996, Now it gets "dynamic ticks" almost six years after Linux. Wow. Surprise. Shock.
Microsoft has never been about innovation. It's about *watching* other innovators and then copying the idea. It's the "embrace" part of their EEE motto.
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Look at the pie charts on this page: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Intels-Game-Changer-One-Size-Fits-All-Haswell/?page=4
Notice how the display is quickly dominating the power consumption? The whole ARM vs. x86 power consumption bit is bunk. Intel has proven it can be competitive with ARM, and even if ARM could magically make a chip that uses zero power, your display isn't going to suck down any less juice based on the instruction set of the processor running your device....
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Until Intel stops making Windows-only processors, every Intel processor article is also a Windows article and we must drag out the "Microsoft business practices" dead horse for another flogging. Mobile, desktop, server, it doesn't matter. It's policy I'm afraid, and nothing can be done about it. Intel's own fault really. They tainted themselves with that brush.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
It's mildly amusing that Windows 8 is the first version to gain dynamic ticks, something Linux has had working since around 2007.
Its also mildly amusing that Windows has always trumped Linux in battery life, despite not implementing this power saving feature.
It's mildly amusing that Windows 8 is the first version to gain dynamic ticks, something Linux has had working since around 2007.
Yes, yes indeedy. When you think Microsoft, think INNOVATION!
That Linux just recently got and find that "mildly amusing".
It is rather silly. Yes, OSes have different feature sets. They don't all implement everything at the same time.
Linux has had the dynamic ticks (CONFIG_NO_HZ) feature for a while, but that only shuts down the timer tick when the system is completely idle. There is a new feature in the works named "adaptive tickless", see announcement and a recent progress update, that will also shut down the timer tick when the system is running a single task.
The freature was add to Linux kernel in 2.6.21 http://lwn.net/Articles/223185/
Except that this statement is meaningless and compares apples and oranges. But research is for nerds, am I right?
have been working on?
let me know.
So intel's CPU architecture is so clunky and complicated compared with the likes of ARM that it needs special intricate OS kernel hacks to get close to the same level of power consumption as the more efficient processors?
Stick Men