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> Say Intel released the same chips but added a very large SRAM layer - that for some applications would swing things for sure, not cheap but again Which they
by kllrnohj 6y ago
> Say Intel released the same chips but added a very large SRAM layer - that for some applications would swing things for sure, not cheap but again
Which they did for Broadwell but then immediately abandoned it. Anandtech recently did a retrospective on it: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16195/a-broadwell-retrospective-review-in-2020-is-edram-still-worth-it https://www.anandtech.com/show/16195/a-broadwell-retrospecti...
(although at the time of writing this Anandtech's site is dead so pop that into your cached lookup of choice)
- mastax 6y agoThat's talking about eDRAM which has different trade-offs due to increased latency vs L3.
- bcrl 6y agoIntel did perform internal studies on the effect of 3d stacking on CPU layouts. For things like caches the reduction in delay caused by adding another layer is significant. AMD had to increase latency of the L3 cache in Zen 3 by 7 cycles as a trade-off for the increased size. If they were able to stack SRAM with another layer of transistors placed vertically, that latency penalty could be reduced.