Jump to content

Intel 10nm CPUs shipping in Lenovo Ideapad 330?

While Intel has admitted to having issues with producing volume of 10nm CPUs for consumers, it does appear that they are producing some small volumes, of which the first batch appear to be going to Lenovo for the update to the Ideapad 330.   This chip is not listed as a 9 series but as the i3-8121u with a dual core, hyperthreaded part operating at a base frequency of 2.2 and boost to 3.2 GHz and a 15W TDP.  Interestingly, it appears that the Ideapad listing may indicate that the iGPU is disabled as it is shipping with an RX540 GPU.  There are two articles from OC3D which points to this information.

 

First posted 5/14:  https://www.overclock3d.net/news/cpu_mainboard/intel_s_first_10nm_cannon_lake_laptop_spotted_-_lenovo_ideapad_330/1

Quote

Intel has not had a great time manufacturing new CPUs on their new 10nm manufacturing process, so much so that Intel has been forced to release the same Skylake series processing cores for three hardware generations through Skylake, Kaby Lake and now Coffee Lake.   

10nm is said to be shipping in low quantities, pointing towards some major yield issues with the process, making it unsuitable for large core designs at this time, placing Intel in an awkward position. 

Now it looks like we have an answer to the question "where have Intel been shipping their low quantities of 10nm hardware?", with Chinese retailers listing a new Lenovo notebook with a 10nm Cannonlake i3-8121U series CPU. 

This new notebook is a variant of Lenovo's Ideapad 330, which pairs the new Intel CPU with a Radeon RX 540 graphics chip and lacks Intel integrated graphics. At this time it is unknown why the iGPU silicon is disabled in this dual-core processor. 

Intel's release of this product as an 8th Generation dual-core hyperthreaded processor with disabled integrated graphics doesn't paint an attractive picture for 10nm. This laptop sits in the low-end of the market, so don't expect Intel to make a big deal of this new processor, given its low clock speeds, core count and lack of integrated graphics capabilities. 

Second posted 5/15:  https://www.overclock3d.net/news/cpu_mainboard/intel_confirms_the_existence_of_10nm_cannon_lake_i3-8121u_cpu/1

Quote

When confronted with their 10nm manufacturing problems, Intel's defence has been that they are shipped 10nm silicon in low quantities, with the problem being that 10nm currently does not offer high enough manufacturing yields to create a full range of desktop processors cost-effectively with at desired qualities.    

Yesterday we talked about Lenovo's Ideapad 330, which now ships in China with a new processor called the i3 8121U, Intel's first Cannon Lake and 10nm product. 

You may be wondering why Intel has not made much of a fuss about this launch, as new product architectures and process node advancements often come surrounded by hype and fanfare. In this case, it is obvious why Intel wants to brush the i3 8121U under the carpet; it is a low-TDP dual-core product that lacks an iGPU component, offering users unimpressive clock speeds that start at a base of 2.2GHz and boost up to 3.2GHz.     

The full specifications of Intel's new i3 8121U processor are now available on Intel Ark, the company's product database, marked with no "Recommended Customer Price", which likely means that these processors are shipping at an incredibly low price. Remember that OEMs have to combine this product with a dedicated graphics chip, making the product unusable as a standalone CPU without the help of Radeon or Geforce graphics. 

Compare the i3 8121U to Intel's 8th Generation Kaby Lake Mobile i3-8130U and the shortcomings of this 10nm product are clear, with the i3-8130U offering base/boost clock speeds of 2.2GHz and 3.4GHz, the same TDP of 15W (configurable to 10W) and an integrated graphics component. Intel's Cannon Lake i3 8121U falls short of Intel's 14nm offering, assuming that Cannon Lake doesn't offer a transformative difference in performance per clock.

Intel ARK:  https://ark.intel.com/products/136863/Intel-Core-i3-8121U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz?q=8121U

 

Based on the specs listed for this part, I have to agree with OC3D that the 10nm process chip as it stands does not really provide much of a benefit over their 14nm Kaby Lake chip, and with the low yields they are supposedly getting, it may not be economic to really use instead of the 14nm chips...  Hopefully Intel can get the wrinkles ironed out in the next year though and advance their 10nm process in a way that does show some gains over the 14nm that makes all of this time and effort at least partially worth it.

 

EDIT:  Here is an article from over at Anandtech on the new Lenovo Ideapad with some better information/images...

 

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12749/first-10nm-cannon-lake-laptop-spotted-online-lenovo-ideapad-330-for-449

 

Definitely looks like a low end just needs something that works for a year or two deal...

Edited by WMGroomAK
Adding Article
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Possible, usually mobile processors are first to come out before the desktop/server.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, WMGroomAK said:

Based on the specs listed for this part, I have to agree with OC3D that the 10nm process chip as it stands does not really provide much of a benefit over their 14nm Kaby Lake chip, and with the low yields they are supposedly getting, it may not be economic to really use instead of the 14nm chips...  Hopefully Intel can get the wrinkles ironed out in the next year though and advance their 10nm process in a way that does show some gains over the 14nm that makes all of this time and effort at least partially worth it.

 

This is something I feared since 28 nm.  Source drain leakage + increasing fabrication costs have caused CPU shrinking to no longer be economically viable.

 

In my opinion, the next step (that doesn't require a fundamental overhaul of our computing paradigm - i.e. quantum or superconducting computing) would be optimized CPU architectures with high density and high bandwidth non volatile memory solutions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yield issues merely limit the profit margin and max output, and given how the main benefit besides die shrink of a smaller process node is power efficiency it would make sense to push that for mobile chips even if it may not get as good profit margins.

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/631048-psu-tier-list-updated/ Tier Breakdown (My understanding)--1 Godly, 2 Great, 3 Good, 4 Average, 5 Meh, 6 Bad, 7 Awful

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

Yield issues merely limit the profit margin and max output, and given how the main benefit besides die shrink of a smaller process node is power efficiency  it would make sense to push that for mobile chips even if it may not get as good profit margins.

Hopefully it is seeing more power efficiency at 10nm considering that the Ideapads at least are using dGPU for graphics.  Would be nice to see one of these with the iGPU enabled and be able to compare power consumption on a mobile platform.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

"lets just ship a couple so we can say Moore's law is still a thing"

"If a Lobster is a fish because it moves by jumping, then a kangaroo is a bird" - Admiral Paulo de Castro Moreira da Silva

"There is nothing more difficult than fixing something that isn't all the way broken yet." - Author Unknown

Spoiler

Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4.6 GHz - Asus P9X79WS/IPMI - 12GB DDR3-1600 quad-channel - EVGA GTX 1080ti SC - Fractal Design Define R5 - 500GB Crucial MX200 - NH-D15 - Logitech G710+ - Mionix Naos 7000 - Sennheiser PC350 w/Topping VX-1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I mean, it is actually true that mode shrinks on silicon are having higher and higher diminishing returns at the high power density that cpus are running.

LINK-> Kurald Galain:  The Night Eternal 

Top 5820k, 980ti SLI Build in the World*

CPU: i7-5820k // GPU: SLI MSI 980ti Gaming 6G // Cooling: Full Custom WC //  Mobo: ASUS X99 Sabertooth // Ram: 32GB Crucial Ballistic Sport // Boot SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

Mass SSD: Crucial M500 960GB  // PSU: EVGA Supernova 850G2 // Case: Fractal Design Define S Windowed // OS: Windows 10 // Mouse: Razer Naga Chroma // Keyboard: Corsair k70 Cherry MX Reds

Headset: Senn RS185 // Monitor: ASUS PG348Q // Devices: Note 10+ - Surface Book 2 15"

LINK-> Ainulindale: Music of the Ainur 

Prosumer DYI FreeNAS

CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3  // Cooling: Noctua L9x65 //  Mobo: AsRock E3C224D2I // Ram: 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3-1333

HDDs: 4x HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB  // PSU: EVGA 650GQ // Case: Fractal Design Node 304 // OS: FreeNAS

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think an issue Intel has made for themselves is that everyone loves the 5GHz+ chips from Kaby Lake on. Except that was on an arch they'd had years to improve on. Getting similar performance from 10nm is going to be an issue, especially when AMD doesn't seem to be having problems with the smaller sizes and higher clocks 

That's an F in the profile pic

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Im interested in the IPC gains as it will paint a picture of what we can expect from 7nm from competitors. It is said that 10nm intel node is comparable to other 7nm processes. For the love of competition i hope these can ship next year. Maybe some viable mobile i5's and i7's for ultrabooks. I hope even if there isn any performance gain that there will be som perf/watt gains

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

This is pretty concerning. It doesn't sound like the 10nm process will be of much use to Intel if it is only capable of manufacturing lower core count CPU's and requires them to cut the iGPU as well.

CPU - Ryzen Threadripper 2950X | Motherboard - X399 GAMING PRO CARBON AC | RAM - G.Skill Trident Z RGB 4x8GB DDR4-3200 14-13-13-21 | GPU - Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce WB Xtreme Edition | Case - Inwin 909 (Silver) | Storage - Samsung 950 Pro 500GB, Samsung 970 Evo 500GB, Samsung 840 Evo 500GB, HGST DeskStar 6TB, WD Black 2TB | PSU - Corsair AX1600i | Display - DELL ULTRASHARP U3415W |

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

@GoldenLag we havint seen much from 14nm agaisnt it's predecesor which loosk to be down to intels arc design and tight controsl on power to preformance ratios. So I'd say they wont represent AMDs gains.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×