In fact, the function of the processor is more similar to that of the brain, because it is responsible for processing and calculating all the data inside the computer, while the motherboard chipset is more like the heart, controlling the exchange of data. The type of CPU determines the operating system and corresponding software you use, and the speed of CPU determines how powerful your computer is. Of course, a faster CPU update will cost you more money.
At present, Intel's CPU and its compatible products are dominant in microcomputer -PC, so the series of articles on CPU romance will focus on these CPUs and their manufacturing technology, operation mode, performance, types and other knowledge. Whether it's Intel or AMD's CPU, or some other CPU you may have heard of (such as the CPU used in iMac or SGI workstation), there are many similarities.
The core of central processing unit
From the appearance, the CPU is often a rectangular or square block, which is connected with the motherboard through many pins. However, what you see is only the coat of CPU-the encapsulation of CPU. Internally, the core of CPU is a thin silicon chip (die, The Core), and its size is usually less than 1/4 inches, as shown in figure 1. On this small silicon chip, there are millions of transistors, which are like neurons in the brain, and cooperate with each other to complete various complex operations and operations.
[img]/article/0/798/lizrovvaztag . jpg[/img]
It should be noted that the line width refers to the width of the gate circuit, the most basic functional unit on the chip. Because the width of the connection line between the actual gate circuits is the same as that of the gate circuits, the line width can describe the manufacturing process. Narrowing linewidth means that transistors can be made smaller and denser, the power consumption of chips can be reduced, the system is more stable, the CPU can run at a higher frequency, and smaller wafers can be used for the same chip complexity, so the cost is reduced.
[img]/article/0/80 1/liuccwdqt 74 ds . jpg[/img]
With the continuous decrease of line width, aluminum wires used in chips in the past will not be conductive enough, and copper wires with better conductivity will be used in future processors. AMD has adopted copper wire technology in the high-frequency version of Thunderbird, a new member of K7 series just launched.
Packaging of CPU
& nbsp; After passing several rigorous tests, silicon wafers with various circuit structures can be sent to the packaging factory for cutting, divided into individual processor dies and put into packaging. Packaging is more than just a beautiful coat. Due to the protection of the package, the processor core is isolated from the air to avoid the invasion of pollutants. In addition, good packaging design is also helpful for chip heat dissipation. At the same time, it is a bridge between the processor and the motherboard.
& nbsp & nbsp; Packaging technology is also constantly developing. At present, the most common package is PGA (Pin Grid Array) (Figure 2 shows the pin side of Pentium CPU). Usually, this package is square, with three to four rows or more pins evenly distributed around the central area, and the pins can be inserted into the corresponding sockets on the CPU socket of the motherboard. With the increase of CPU bus width and function enhancement, the number of CPU pins is increasing, and at the same time, there are higher requirements for heat dissipation and electrical characteristics, thus evolved SPGA (staggered pin grid array) and PPGA (plastic pin grid array).
Pentium Coppermine adopts a unique FC-PGA (Flip Chip Pin Grid Array) package, as shown in Figure 3. It flips the core at 180 degrees below the package substrate and sits firmly on the package substrate, which can shorten the connection and is beneficial to heat dissipation. However, this is not Intel's creative behavior. AMD used a similar technology in K6 processor (a patent bought from IBM), but it was not known because it was covered by a metal shell. The new Socket A series CPU also adopts similar technology.
Central processor interface
Corresponding to different architectures of CPU, the interface types connected to the motherboard are often different.
The most common socket in 586 era is Socket 7 socket, as shown in Figure 4. It is a square multi-pin socket with zero plugging and unplugging force. There is a pull rod on the socket. When installing and replacing the CPU, you can easily insert or take out the CPU chip by pulling the lever upward. Socket 7 socket is suitable for Intel Pentium, Pentium MMX, AMD K5, K6, K6-2, K6-III, Cyrix 6X86, X86 MX, M Ⅱ and other processors.
[img]/article/0/803/Li 7 aftqdhzzc . jpg[/img]
Slot 1 (as shown in Figure 6) is a patented technology of Intel. It is a long and narrow slot with 242 pins, which can support Pentium II, Pentium III and Celeron processors with SEC (Single Side Connector) packaging technology. The SEC package initiated by Intel is actually the PGA package fixed on the daughter card.
Intel's first CPU 4004, 4-bit main processor, clocked at 108kHz, with an operation speed of 0.06 MIPS (one million instructions per second), 2300 integrated transistors, 10 micron manufacturing process, the maximum addressable memory of 640 bytes, and the production date of 19765438.
[img]/ blog/data/image /cpu/4004.jpg[/img]
8008, 8-bit main processor, main frequency 200kHz, operation speed 0.06MIPs, 3500 integrated transistors, 10 micron manufacturing process, maximum addressing memory 16KB, production date1April 972.
[img]/ blog/data/image /cpu/8008.jpg[/img]
8080, 8-bit main processor, main frequency 2M, operation speed 0.64MIPs, 6000 integrated transistors, 6 micron manufacturing process, maximum addressable memory 64KB, production date1April, 974.
8085, 8-bit main processor, main frequency 5M, operation speed 0.37MIPs, 6500 integrated transistors, 3 micron manufacturing process, maximum addressable memory 64KB, production date 1976.
[img]/ blog/data/image /cpu/8085.jpg[/img]
8086, 16-bit processor, main frequency 4.77/8/ 10MHZ, operation speed 0.75MIPs, 29,000 integrated transistors, 3 micron manufacturing process, maximum addressable memory 1MB, production date1June, 978.
[img]/ blog/data/image /cpu/8086.jpg[/img]
8088, 8-bit master, main frequency 4.77/8MHZ, 29,000 integrated transistors, 3 micron manufacturing process, maximum addressable memory 1MB, production date1June, 979.
80286, 16-bit host, main frequency 6/8/ 10/ 12~25MHZ, maximum operation speed 2.66MIPs, 134000 integrated transistor, 3 micron manufacturing process, maximum addressable memory1.
[img]/ blog/data/image /cpu/80286.jpg[/img]
80386DX, 32-bit main processor, main frequency 16/20/25/33MHZ, maximum operation speed 10MIPs, 275000 integrated transistors, 1.5 micron manufacturing process, maximum addressable memory 4GB, production date190.
[img]/ blog/data/image /cpu/80386.jpg[/img]
80386SX, 16-bit main processor, main frequency MHZ, operation speed 6MIPs, integrated transistor 134000, 3 micron manufacturing process, maximum addressable memory 16MB, production date 1988.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/80386 sx . jpg[/img]
80486DX, DX2, DX4, 32-bit host, main frequency 25/33/50/66/75/ 100MHZ, bus frequency 33/50/66MHZ, operation speed 20 ~ 60MIPs, 1.2M integrated transistor, 65438.
[img]/ blog/data/image /cpu/80486.jpg[/img]
Pentium, with 64-bit master control, clocked at 60/66/75/100/120mhz (p54),133/150/166/200mhz (p54c). 1 micron manufacturing process, 273 or 296 pins, maximum addressable memory 4GB, cache 16/256/5 12KB, production date1March, 993.
Pentium MMX (MMX: multimedia expansion, adding 57 multimedia instructions), 64-bit host, main frequency150/150/166/200/233 MHz (p55c), bus frequency 66MHZ, and operation speed up to 435 megabits. Integrated transistor 4. 1~4.5M, 1 micron manufacturing process, SOCKET7 interface, maximum addressable memory 4GB, cache 16/256/5 12KB, production date1March 1993.
Pentium Pro, 64-bit master, main frequency 1 33/150/166/180/200mhz, bus frequency 66MHZ, operation speed up to 300 ~ 440MIPs, 5.5M integrated transistor,/kloc-0. Cache 16/256kB~ 1MB, production date 1995 1 1 month.
Pentium II, 64-bit master, main frequency 200/233/266/300/333/350/400/450mhz, bus frequency 66/ 100MHZ, operation speed 560 ~ 770MIPs, 7.5M integrated transistor, 1 micron manufacturing process. L 1 cache 16kB, L2 cache 5 12KB, production date1March, 997. (233~333MHz, 2.8V Klamath core, 66MHz FSB350~450MHz, 2.0V down-conversion core, 100MHz front-end bus)
Pentium II Xeon, 64-bit master control, main frequency 400/450MHZ, bus frequency 100MHZ, brand-new SLOT2 interface, maximum addressable memory 64GB, L 1 cache 16kB, L2 cache 5 12KB~2MB.
Celeron generation, clocked at 266/300mhz (266/300mhz w/O L2 cache, Covington core (based on Kla mathematics), 300a/333/366/400/433/466/500/533mhz W/128kb L2 cache.
Pentium III, 64-bit processor, clocked at 450/500MHZ(Katmai core: 2.0V, 100MHz bus frequency, 512kb2 cache, slot 1 interface), 533mhz ~1.
Pentium III Xeon is divided into early Tanner core (0.25 micron manufacturing process, 256KB cache) and later Cascades core (bus frequency 133MHZ, L2 cache 2MB, 0. 18 micron manufacturing process), and the production date is 1999.
Pentium III (Tulatin core) main frequency1.13g ~1.4g, bus frequency 133mhz, L2 cache 5 12k, socket 370 interface, manufacturing technology 0.13μ m.
Celeron II, clocked at 533MHZ~ 1GHZ (copper core: 1.6V, bus frequency 66/ 100MHZ, L2 cache 128k, socket 370), 0. 18 micron manufacturing process.
Celeron III (Tulatin, Tulatin core), the main frequency is 1GHZ~ 1.3GHZ, the bus frequency is 100 MHz, the manufacturing process is 0. 13 micron, the Socket370 interface, 256k secondary cache, the core is absolutely not afraid of crushing, and the power consumption is low.
Pentium 4 (Willamette core, 423 pins), main frequency 1.3g ~ 1.7g, FSB 400 MHz, 0. 18 micron manufacturing process, Socket423 interface, secondary cache 256K, production date165438.
Pentium 4 (478 needles) is divided into three cores: Willamette core (1.5G, FSB400MHZ, manufactured by 0. 18 micron) and Northwood core (1.6g ~ 3.0g, FSB 533 MHz, 0./kloc-0). Secondary cache 5 12K), Prescott core (from 2.8G, FSB800MHZ, 0.09 micron manufacturing process, 1M secondary cache, 13 brand-new instruction set SSE3), production date is July 2006, 5438+0.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/Pentium . jpg[/img]
Pentium MMX (MMX: multimedia expansion, adding 57 multimedia instructions), 64-bit host, main frequency150/150/166/200/233 MHz (p55c), bus frequency 66MHZ, and operation speed up to 435 megabits. Integrated transistor 4. 1~4.5M, 1 micron manufacturing process, SOCKET7 interface, maximum addressable memory 4GB, cache 16/256/5 12KB, production date1March 1993.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/pmmx . jpg[/img]
Pentium Pro, 64-bit master, main frequency 1 33/150/166/180/200mhz, bus frequency 66MHZ, operation speed up to 300 ~ 440MIPs, 5.5M integrated transistor,/kloc-0. Cache 16/256kB~ 1MB, production date 1995 1 1 month.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/ppro . jpg[/img]
Pentium II, 64-bit master, main frequency 200/233/266/300/333/350/400/450mhz, bus frequency 66/ 100MHZ, operation speed 560 ~ 770MIPs, 7.5M integrated transistor, 1 micron manufacturing process. L 1 cache 16kB, L2 cache 5 12KB, production date1March, 997. (233~333MHz, 2.8V Klamath core, 66MHz FSB350~450MHz, 2.0V down-conversion core, 100MHz front-end bus)
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/p2 . jpg[/img]
Pentium II Xeon, 64-bit master control, main frequency 400/450MHZ, bus frequency 100MHZ, brand-new SLOT2 interface, maximum addressable memory 64GB, L 1 cache 16kB, L2 cache 5 12KB~2MB.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/p2x . jpg[/img]
Celeron generation, clocked at 266/300mhz (266/300mhz w/O L2 cache, Covington core (based on Kla mathematics), 300a/333/366/400/433/466/500/533mhz W/128kb L2 cache.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/c 1 . jpg[/img]
Pentium III, 64-bit processor, clocked at 450/500MHZ(Katmai core: 2.0V, 100MHz bus frequency, 512kb2 cache, slot 1 interface), 533mhz ~1.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/P3-4 . jpg[/img]
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/P3-3 . jpg[/img]
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/P3- 1 . jpg[/img]
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/P3-2 . jpg[/img]
Pentium III Xeon is divided into early Tanner core (0.25 micron manufacturing process, 256KB cache) and later Cascades core (bus frequency 133MHZ, L2 cache 2MB, 0. 18 micron manufacturing process), and the production date is 1999.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/p3x . jpg[/img]
Pentium III (Tulatin core) main frequency1.13g ~1.4g, bus frequency 133mhz, L2 cache 5 12k, socket 370 interface, manufacturing technology 0.13μ m.
[img]/blog/data/Image/CPU/p3s . jpg[/img]
Celeron II, clocked at 533MHZ~ 1GHZ (copper core: 1.6V, bus frequency 66/ 100MHZ, L2 cache 128k, socket 370), 0. 18 micron manufacturing process.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/C2 . jpg[/img]
Celeron III (Tulatin, Tulatin core), the main frequency is 1GHZ~ 1.3GHZ, the bus frequency is 100 MHz, the manufacturing process is 0. 13 micron, the Socket370 interface, 256k secondary cache, the core is absolutely not afraid of crushing, and the power consumption is low.
[img]/blog/data/Image/CPU/tulatin . jpg[/img]
Pentium 4 (Willamette core, 423 pins), main frequency 1.3g ~ 1.7g, FSB 400 MHz, 0. 18 micron manufacturing process, Socket423 interface, secondary cache 256K, production date165438.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/P4- 1 . jpg[/img]
Pentium 4 (478 needles) is divided into three cores: Willamette core (1.5G, FSB400MHZ, manufactured by 0. 18 micron) and Northwood core (1.6g ~ 3.0g, FSB 533 MHz, 0./kloc-0). Secondary cache 5 12K), Prescott core (from 2.8G, FSB800MHZ, 0.09 micron manufacturing process, 1M secondary cache, 13 brand-new instruction set SSE3), production date is July 2006, 5438+0.
[img]/blog/data/image/CPU/P4-2 . jpg[/img]
Brief history of Intel server CPU products
[img]http://magazine . our sci . org/20030 1/26- 10 . jpg[/img]
In the field of computer CPU, Intel is the undisputed leader. Although AMD, VIA and other manufacturers continue to introduce new products, they have formed fierce competition with Intel. However, in the field of servers, Intel has an unshakable advantage. It can be said that Intel can have today's status, and the following epoch-making products have made indelible contributions:
Server CPU Prototype: Pentium pro
After the great success of Pentium processor, in the autumn of 1995, Intel released Pentium Pro processor. Pentium PRO is Intel's first processor specially designed for 32-bit servers and workstations. It can be used in high-speed CAD, mechanical engine, scientific calculation and medical treatment, and its main frequency is150/166/180 and 200MHz. Intel has reached a new height in the design and manufacture of Pentium PRO, with a total of 5.5 million transistors and a high-speed L2 cache chip, which is superior to Pentium:
1) Encapsulates L2cache and CPU together-"PPGA encapsulation technology" (both 486 and Pentium installed L2cache on the motherboard). The two chips are interconnected by a high-bandwidth bus, and the connecting wires are also placed in the encapsulation. This makes it easier for the built-in L2cache to run at a higher frequency (for example, the L2 cache of Pentium Pro 200MHz CPU runs at the same frequency as the CPU), thus greatly improving the execution speed of the program.
2) The external address bus is extended to 36 bits, and the direct addressing capability of the processor is 64GB, leaving room for future development.
3) Dynamic execution technology is adopted, which is another leap of Pentium processor technology. This technology can choose the best instruction execution order by predicting the program flow and analyzing the program data flow. This means that instructions do not have to be executed in the order specified by the program, but can be executed as long as the conditions are met, so that the program can achieve higher running efficiency.
The advanced design idea of Pentium Pro has laid a good foundation for the development of microprocessor in the future.
The birth of Xeon: Pentium II Xeon
1998 Intel announces Pentium II Xeon processor. Xeon is a new brand launched by Intel. At that time, in order to distinguish the server market from the ordinary PC market, Intel decided to develop a brand-new server CPU, named Pentium II Xeon, to replace the previously used Pentium Pro brand. This product line is aimed at the high-end enterprise server and workstation market; It is an important step for Intel to further divide the market. Xeon is mainly used for running commercial software, Internet service, company data storage, data classification, database, electronic and mechanical automation design, etc.
Pentium II Xeon processor is not only faster, but also has larger cache. More importantly, it can support up to 4 or 8 SMP symmetric multi-CPU processing functions. It uses Slot 2 interface different from Pentium II Slot 1 interface, and it can only be used with special server motherboards.
Great success: Pentium III Xeon
1999, Intel released the Pentium III Xeon processor. I believe that everyone still remembers what Pentium 3 processors with "Copper Mine" cores were like in those years, and they are still regarded as classic products. As the successor of Pentium II Xeon, it not only adopts a brand-new design in the kernel architecture, but also inherits 70 instruction sets added by Pentium III processor to better execute multimedia and streaming media applications. In addition to facing the enterprise market, Pentium III Xeon has also strengthened its e-commerce application and advanced business computing capabilities. Intel also divided Xeon into two parts, low-end Xeon and high-end Xeon. The low-end Xeon, like ordinary Coppermine, is only equipped with 256KB L2 cache and does not support multiprocessors. In this way, the performance gap between low-end Xeon and ordinary Pentium III is very small, and the price is similar; High-end Xeon processors still have the previous features, supporting larger caches and multiple processors.
Wave after wave: Pentium 4 Xeon
In 200 1 year, Intel released the Xeon processor. Intel's removal of the name Pentium from Xeon does not mean leaving x86, but making the brand concept clearer. The market positioning of Xeon processor is also more aimed at high performance, load balancing, multi-channel symmetric processing and other characteristics, which are not available in Pentium brand desktop computers. Xeon processor is actually based on Pentium 4 kernel, and also has 64-bit data bandwidth. However, due to adopting the same principle as AGP 4X-"quadruple speed" technology, its front-end bus has been greatly improved, and its performance is far better than Pentium III Xeon processor. Xeon processor is based on Intel's NetBurst architecture, which has more advanced network functions and more complex and excellent 3D graphics performance. On the other hand, the chipset supporting Xeon also better supports server-side computing in parallel computing, supports high-performance I/O subsystems (such as SCSI disk array and gigabit network interface), and supports PCI bus segmentation.
64-bit pioneer: Itanium processor.
In 200 1 year, the server product based on IA-64 platform-itanium processor jointly developed by HP and Intel was grandly released. Itanium processor is the first 64-bit product of Intel, which has 64-bit addressing ability and 64-bit wide registers, so we call it 64-bit CPU. Because of its 64-bit addressing ability, it can use 1 terabyte address space, which is enough to calculate enterprise-level or super-large-scale database tasks; 64-bit wide registers can make CPU floating-point operations achieve very high accuracy. In fact, IA-64 processor also has the characteristics of explicit parallelism, branch prediction and speculative loading. These technologies are designed for top and enterprise servers and workstations. Instruction-level parallelism can promote the optimization of software instruction structure and enable the processor to execute more instructions at the same time. Speculation: Speculation technology allows data to be loaded in advance, even before code branches appear. By loading data from memory as early as possible, speculation technology can avoid memory delay. Prediction technology avoids many code branches and performance degradation caused by prediction errors of related data branches. IA-64 also allows more space on the processor to execute instructions-more execution units, more registers and more caches. With the development of processor technology to provide more space for these execution resources, the performance of IA-64 will be improved accordingly.
Itanium processor embodies a new design idea, which is completely based on parallel concurrent computing (EPIC). For enterprises or applications that need the support of high-performance computing functions (including electronic transaction security processing, very large databases, computer-aided mechanical engines, cutting-edge scientific operations, etc.), the performance requirements are the highest. ), Itanium processor meets the requirements of users well.
Continue to be brilliant: An Teng 2 (An Teng 2) processor
In 2002, Intel released the An Teng 2 processor. An Teng 2 processor code-named McKinley is the second generation 64-bit series product of Intel. The most important innovation of Itanium dual-processor cache system is to integrate large-capacity L3 cache into the processor silicon core, rather than as an independent chip of the system motherboard. This not only speeds up data retrieval, but also increases the overall communication bandwidth between the L3 cache and the processor core by nearly three times. Coupled with many other improvements in cache efficiency, the processor core can even run at high speed in highly complex memory-intensive transactions. Therefore, An Teng 2 can be applied to more demanding occasions, providing various platforms and application support for high-end servers and workstations.
An Teng 2 processor is a product built and expanded on the basis of An Teng architecture. Provides two-bit compatibility, which can be compatible with applications specially compiled for the first generation of Itanium processors, and the performance is greatly improved by 50% ~ 100%. The system bus bandwidth of An Teng 2 is 6.4 GB/ s, and the L3 cache is as high as 3MB. According to Intel, the performance of An Teng 2 is 50% higher than the hardware platform of Sun Microsystems.
Chronology of server CPU products:
Pentium II/III
Ds2p Pentium IIXeon
Tanner0.25μm Pentium IIIXeon. KatmaiSlot2 interface
Cascode 0. 18μm Pentium iii Xeon
pentium 4
Intel Xeon version 0. 18μm (Willamette)
FosterMPHyper-Threading corresponds to the Xeon version of the large-capacity server.
Gallatin 0.13 μ m version Xeon
0. 13μm Xeon processor for Prestonia servers and workstations.
Nokona's new CPU debuted in 2003.
IA-64
Merced 1 generation An Teng
McKinley Version 0. 18μ m Second Generation IA-64
Madison McKinley 0. 13μm version
Deerfield McKinley 0. 13μm version
Montecito90nm nano IA-64 version
0.09μm Xeon processor for servers and workstations