HYBRID PROCESSORS ARE THE FUTURE OF COMPUTING

Las Vegas, Jan. 13: While Intel and AMD were outdoing each other at CES 2019 by announcing their respective 10nanometer (nm) and 7nm processors, both companies also introduced hybrid processors that may change the future of computing forever.

On one side, there’s Intel’s LakeField processors, with architecture that is more like an ARM CPU than a traditional computer chip. Instead of just having a block of

10nm CPU cores, the LakeField processor will feature one central 10nm Sunny Cove core paired with four Treemont Atom cores.

Later into CES 2019, AMD also introduced its own hybrid processor with a Ryzen 3rd Generation chip that pairs an eightcore 7nm chiplet with a second 14nm chiplet to manage memory controllers and PCIe lanes.

Both processors aim to do different things with their hybrid architectures, but they share one thing in common: they’re both moving away from the traditional monolithic processor.

Now, after all that talk, you might be wondering what the difference is between monolithic and hybrid processor designs. The answer is actually simpler than you might think. — Agencies