Intel and AMD: The two biggest chip manufacturers and also two bitter rivals are shaking hands in order to challenge Nvidia. Intel and AMD have announced the partnership to develop a processor that integrates Intel’s CPU architecture and AMD’s graphics technology.
The new processor will be Intel 8th generation H-series. The current 8th generation processor in the market comes under U-series.
This H-series chip will be aimed at thin and light notebooks. We all know that gaming top-tier laptops is on the heavier side in terms of specification and performance. So basically Intel is trying to deliver the same kind of performance in comparatively lightweight notebooks in a single chip.
The partnership:
AMD and Intel have been bitter rivals in the processor market. Though, Intel always outshined AMD in processor segment. Nowadays Intel’s primary challenger seems to be Nvidia. With its solutions for AI and machine learning, Nvidia is turning out to be much more than a GPU-maker.
On the other hand, AMD has pressed Nvidia on its GPU business lately with their latest cost-effective product line up. So this situation is an enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The Technology:
Intel’s CPU architecture with integrated AMD Raedon GPU all within one chip sounds interesting, right? According to Intel, its new Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology allow the heterogeneous CPU and GPU to coexist on a single package and communicate with each other at very high speed.
It will also use 3D-stacked HBM2 memory, making it the first such mobile implementation. According to AMD, HBM2 consumes less power and takes up less space than GDDR5.
Single-chip integrated CPU and GPU will cause complex power management. The new Intel chip will extend this kind of power management to the discrete embedded GPU.
The Intel part of the package will still have its own integrated graphics. The integrated graphics will be used for tasks such as regular desktop graphics workloads and the AMD chip for gaming and other more graphics-heavy tasks.
The Conclusion:
We are expecting this chip will come out in the first quarter of 2018. This new chip will surely bring revolution to the industry. It will also be a win-win situation for both Intel and AMD and they’ll gain a boost in the market. More importantly, the users will get lighter notebooks with better performance.