Intel showcases Core M refernce design, beats Surface Pro 3 in CPU benchmarks

[LAwLz]

 

Today Intel unveiled their reference design tablet codenamed Llama Mountain.

This tablet was built to showcase Core M and it looks very promising.

 

The tablet uses the Core M 5Y70 SoC which is the highest end Core M part. It has 2 cores (with hyper threading) running at 1,1GHz but can turbo to 2.6GHz. It also has an Intel HD 5300 at 100MHz (turbo to 850MHz).

Not that amazing specs until you take the TDP into consideration. This little chip has a TDP of just 4.5 watts (the i5 in the Surface Pro has a TDP of 15W). That means that it's low enough to be passively cooled in a tablet with an aluminum back.

The cores are Broadwell cores and is using 14nm transistors.

 

Another interesting thing about Core M is the size.

Here is an image of the Surface Pro (first gen):

 

Here is an image of the Core M:

 

The blue PCB is the SoC (CPU/GPU/RAM) and the green PCB is the WiFi and storage (a SanDisk iSSD)

 

 

 

It beats the Surface Pro 3, and runs circles around the Nvidia Shield Tablet and iPad Air. With results like these it's safe to say that Intel has become a force to be reckoned with in the tablet space.

 

 

 

Source: Anandtech

 

 

If you're interested in GPU performance, check out this thread: "Intel Core m Broadwell Benchmark Shows Better Graphics than AMD – Pictures".

[BallGum]

I'm most interested in the Asus convertible one we saw quite a while ago. This is pretty amazing.

[Bogica]

Stick a big ass battery in there and it will last as long as a Nokia 3310 on battery!

[Deletive]

Not bad considering a 45watt light bulb is like 100000x more useless then this.

[Suika]

It beats the Pro 3 with the i5-4200U?

It almost looks comparable to an i7-4500U actually, just a TDP a third of the i7's. I'd actually consider a 2-in-1 with that kind of power if it's at a decent price.

[simtransporter]

That's impressive.  Powerful x86 cores with a low tdp.

[SuperfastJellyfish]

Macbook Air with this pls

[MoonSpot]

My concern is going from 100MHz to 850MHz on turbo.  That's a pretty huge delta.  I'd like to see how many minutes it could take 850MHz for before throttling with only passive cooling.

[AlexGoesHigh]

I'm most interested in the Asus convertible one we saw quite a while ago. This is pretty amazing.

if your talking about the one they showcased on CES that ran windows and android almost simultaneously, well google and MS didn't like the idea and forced it to get canned somewhere around april, may, i ain't going to happen

[GoodBytes]

IdiotBytes being an idiot

[LAwLz]

Please do not plagiarize. You didn't write what you said, beside the title of the post.

Please, use quotes.

Ehh... But I did write it.

The only thing that was copy/pasted were the images.

[GoodBytes]

Ehh... But I did write it.

The only thing that was copy/pasted were the images.

I am a retard today, I am going to bed. Sorry.

[Builder]

That SoC is enormous. Do we have any concrete info about what real-world power usage and temps are like?

[terrytek]

On turbo, this beats my Q6600 by point 2 ghz. Not bad.

[flibberdipper]

Damn...

[Plasma]

all that r&d and billions in loss is now paying off

[LAwLz]

That SoC is enormous. Do we have any concrete info about what real-world power usage and temps are like?

Maybe compared to for example ARM SoC's, but really small compared to what we have been using on x86 until now.

 

No words on power consumption and temps yet, but I think they will be really good (judging by the TDP). No word on how long it can stay in turbo either.

It will probably use less power than the Tegra K1 (which has a higher TDP).

Not really fair to compare a ~40 dollar chip to a ~280 dollar chip but still...

 

 

On a side note, it's best to not get your hopes up too much.

We will see far more benchmarks pop up when we proper devices with Core M in them launch, and it's never 100% sure these kinds of benchmarks accurately reflect what the final products will perform like.

[Builder]

On a side note, it's best to not get your hopes up too much.

We will see far more benchmarks pop up when we proper devices with Core M in them launch, and it's never 100% sure these kinds of benchmarks accurately reflect what the final products will perform like.

Especially considering how Intel's been claiming they were going to destroy ARM next year for the past what, 10 years?

[patrickjp93]

Especially considering how Intel's been claiming they were going to destroy ARM next year for the past what, 10 years?

The Core M GPU scores seem to reflect they did.

[Builder]

The Core M GPU scores seem to reflect they did.

I'm waiting for independent benches. It does seem promising though. I'd like to see how it fares against the A8. I bet it's close.

 

And while it's true to some extent, keep in mind how long it took them to get here vs how long it takes a company to rev a RISC chip.

[HellaflushMcSwaggins]

Now make a phone based on this, with a 5000Mah battery and a 1440p screen

[terrytek]

Now make a phone based on this, with a 5000Mah battery and a 1440p screen

That would be super awesome!

[gunsman]

some things to consider, the SoC itself costs $280, this is a premium SoC at a premium price. Another thing is this is 14nm fin fet, of course it will have pretty good perf/watt compared to ARM SoCs on the archaic 28nm, but with 20nm and 16nm fin fet designs on the horizon things can change, (hopefully, TSMC get you #$%^#  @#$@ together, sick of your delays while intel roflstomps your face in the node war, okay rant over). Compared to haswell, these benchs are short burst perfect situation overviews not concrete benchs. I will hold out for more complete analysis. Don't get me wrong, this has me excited for what lies ahead, been looking for a good tablet to play hearthstone on and other misc stuff. Just gotta play devil's advocate here.

[patrickjp93]

some things to consider, the SoC itself costs $280, this is a premium SoC at a premium price. Another thing is this is 14nm fin fet, of course it will have pretty good perf/watt compared to ARM SoCs on the archaic 28nm, but with 20nm and 16nm fin fet designs on the horizon things can change, (hopefully, TSMC get you #$%^#  @#$@ together, sick of your delays while intel roflstomps your face in the node war, okay rant over). Compared to haswell, these benchs are short burst perfect situation overviews not concrete benchs. I will hold out for more complete analysis. Don't get me wrong, this has me excited for what lies ahead, been looking for a good tablet to play hearthstone on and other misc stuff. Just gotta play devil's advocate here.

TSMC is in very hot water. Samsung is bringing 16-14nm tech to all of Global Foundries in a deal with AMD. Whether or not that takes 2 years is a big question, but at that point TSMC is going to be on 16nm as well. And let's no forget the scaling from 32 to 28 went exactly as Intel predicted: no die space saved. We'll see if TSMC can pull out of this death spiral it's in.