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Golden Cove - Microarchitectures - Intel
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Golden Cove µarch
General Info
Arch TypeCPU
DesignerIntel
ManufacturerIntel
IntroductionNovember 4, 2021
Process10nm
Instructions
ISAx86-64
Cores
Core NamesAlder Lake, Sapphire Rapids
Succession

Golden Cove is the successor to Willow Cove, a high-performance 10 nm x86 core microarchitecture designed by Intel for an array of server and client products, including Sapphire Rapids (server) and Alder Lake (client).

History[edit]

Intel Core roadmap

Golden Cove was originally unveiled by Intel at their 2018 architecture day. Golden Cove is intended to succeed Willow Cove in the 2021 timeframe.

Process Technology[edit]

Intel has confirmed that the Golden Cove architecture will be fabricated on their Intel 7 process (previously 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin (ESF)).

Architecture[edit]

Key changes from Willow Cove[edit]

  • Performance improvements
    • Strong IPC improvement (19%)
    • AI workload improvement (AMX)
    • Network/5G performance improvements
  • New security features
  • Front-End
    • Add 2 simple decoders from 5 but canceled the complex decoder design as it is no longer practical and complex instructions can now be handled by macro uop fusion independently in instruction sequencer, total is now 6 simple decoders
    • x2.5 BTB at 12K entries
    • 2x pages 4k
    • Add more 256 and 32 pages of 2M and 4MB respectively
  • Back-End
    • Increased ROB 512 (from 352 Sunny Cove)
    • Add 2 execution port for a total 12
  • Execution Engine
    • Add one ALU and LEA for a total 5

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Intel Architecture Day 2018, December 11, 2018
  • Intel Details Golden Cove: Next-Generation Big Core For Client and Server SoCs
codenameGolden Cove +
designerIntel +
first launchedNovember 4, 2021 +
full page nameintel/microarchitectures/golden cove +
instance ofmicroarchitecture +
instruction set architecturex86-64 +
manufacturerIntel +
microarchitecture typeCPU +
nameGolden Cove +
process10 nm (0.01 μm, 1.0e-5 mm) +