NVIDIA Reveals First Details about Project Denver CPU Core
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 6, 2014 12:08 AM EST- Posted in
- SoCs
- CPUs
- Project Denver
- NVIDIA
- Tegra K1
During its CES press conference, NVIDIA revealed its new Tegra K1 SoC will be available in two versions. One version will ship with four ARM Cortex A15s, while the other will ship with two NVIDIA designed Denver CPU cores. We don't know much about Denver other than it's a custom 7-wide superscalar 64-bit ARMv8 design.
NVIDIA claims very high single and multithreaded CPU performance. It's important to note that the Denver version only comes with two cores, something we've argued is likely the more optimal use of die area in mobile. Max frequencies top out at 2.5GHz. Given that NVIDIA has silicon back already I suspect this is a 28nm design. The L1 cache is 128KB + 64KB (I$ and D$?).
The Denver CPU cores will be paired with a 192 CUDA core Kepler implementation (1 SMX). No word on differences in power or performance. The Cortex A15 version of Tegra K1 will be available in 1H 2014, while the Denver version will be available in 2H. The two SoCs are pin-compatible, indicating that there won't be any difference in memory interface width.
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NextGen_Gamer - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
During press conference Jen said it is 128 KB L1-I cache & 64KB L1-D cache. And according to Nvidia's press release on their website, Tegra K1 with 4+1 Cortex A15 cores is available in devices in 1H 2014, while Tegra K1 with dual-core Denver is available in 2H 2014 (both sound optimistic to me).skiboysteve - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
In my experience add a full half year to all chip maker "shipping in" quotes because the device makers have to put it in a product before we can use it. So 2H 2014 for the A15 ver and 1H 2015 for the Denver ver.that's what's nice about apple... None of this year early tease crap. They talk about it when you can buy it. (and btw... I'm no apple fan.. But I appreciate this aspect)
jjj - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
Actually no , they showed the A15 silicon in july so chances are we will see devices with it soon (MWC). For Denver it's hard to say since things can go wrong and delays can occur but it's clear that they are planning for products this year.pricedOut - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
The A15 one will appear very soon in a Shield and Tegra Note, and they had samples out in July. For Denver, they have silicon back in Santa Clara and if things go well, samples will be available by the end of this month. That's exactly a 6-month separation, so if second half of 2014 is realistic for the first 64-bit Android.pricedOut - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
I meant 64-bit ARM-based Android. Intel may be able to get someone to produce a x86-based 64-bit Android device earlier.dylan522p - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
They already have. They just haven't written the drivers and such.camelNotation - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
Hmm, I wonder if there's an L2 cache. The die shot doesn't show anything that looks like L2.Homeles - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
That's because Nvidia doesn't provide die shots of their Tegra products, only censored "artist's representations."extide - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
L2 is going to be per-core, and probably on there. It would be in with each core, not an extra block. However, there definitely isnt anything that looks like L3 cache, though; which would be an extra block.Kevin G - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
L2 cache per core on the A15 or Denver version?From historical precedent, A15 version should have a shared L2 cache.