Intel's Single-Core Yonah to Compliment Dual-Core Yonah

by Anton Shilov
04/26/2005 | 12:50 PM

Intel Corp. will release a single-core version of its Yonah processor for notebook computers, according to the roadmaps of the company. The chip is likely to be aimed at affordable notebooks and sub-notebooks with low power consumption that do not need to have very high performance.

The single-core flavour of Intel Pentium M processor code-named Yonah will be clocked at 1.67GHz and will be designed for 667MHz processor system bus. Actual specifications of the chip remain to be seen, but given that the microprocessor is to be produced using 65nm process technology, its thermal design power is likely to be low enough. The chip is still likely to boast with additional enhancements Yonah may feature over current Intel Pentium M “Dothan” processors.

The chipmaker’s President and COO recently said the initial versions of the dual-core Yonah chip will fit into thermal specification for Intel’s current Pentium M processors that consume up to 27W of power. Single-core product is likely to have lower thermal design power compared to dual-core offering with similar architecture produced using identical fabrication process.

Intel Yonah processor is a yet another derivative of the so-called Banias architecture, which inherits many peculiarities of the P6 architecture. The typical flavour of Yonah will have two processing engines and will be produced using 65nm process technology late this year with commercial availability scheduled for Q1 2006. The target clock-rate for Yonah processor is unknown, but during a recent demonstration, which included typical notebook workflow, the chip was clocked at 1467MHz, which is nearly inline with today’s mainstream mobile chips; as time goes, the speed of Yonah may scale up towards 2.17GHz or above. 

Intel at IDF Spring 2005 in the USA disclosed three new technologies planned for Yonah that will improve the performance, power and design of mobile platforms. They include Intel Digital Media Boost, an instruction set for rich digital multimedia content creation; Intel Advanced Thermal Manager, for enhanced thermal monitoring, accuracy and responsiveness; and Intel Dynamic Power Coordination, which can automatically adjust the performance and power between the two processing cores on demand. Yonah will be single piece of silicon dual execution cores design. By contrast, Intel Presler design is a dual piece of silicon with one processing engines each.

Intel earlier disclosed certain peculiarities of its platform beyond the Sonoma, the one code-named Napa. Napa Platform will inherit all the major innovations of the Sonoma, such as PCI Express, DDR2 memory, etc., but will add next-generation integrated chipset with graphics code-named Calistoga, new power management tools that will increase battery life to over 5 hours, as well as WiMAX and 3G options.