Wilfred Gomes, an Intel academician and a member of the chip engineering group, holds a processor made with Foveros advanced packaging technology. The processor combines a unique 3D stacking with a hybrid computing architecture that mixes multiple types of cores with different functions. (Image credit: Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation)

The fingernail-sized Intel chip is the first to feature Foveros technology.

Foveros packaging technology has changed the previous practice of placing different IP modules on the same 2D plane to 3D three-dimensional stacking, giving the processor a new construction mode. Imagine that the newly designed chip is like a layer cake designed to be 1 mm thick, which is very different from the traditional chip that is similar to a pancake-shaped design. Leveraging its award-winning Foveros advanced packaging technology, Intel has been able to “mix and match” technology IP blocks with various memory and I/O components into a compact package that greatly saves board space. The first product with this design was the “Lakefield” with Intel Hybrid Technology and Intel? Core? processors.

A few days ago, The Linley Group, an industry analyst, selected Intel’s Foveros 3D stacking technology as the “Best Technology Award” for its 2019 Analysts’ Choice Awards. Linley Gwennap of The Linley Group said: “Our awards program is not only a recognition and recognition of outstanding chip design and innovation, but also our analysts believe that this product and technology can have a profound impact on future chip design. “

Lakefield products represent a whole new type of chip. It offers an optimized balance of performance, energy efficiency, and best-in-class connectivity in an extremely small package size. The package size of Lakefield is only 12 X 12 X 1 mm. Its hybrid CPU architecture combines a power-efficient “Tremont” core with a performance-scalable 10-nanometer “Sunny Cove” core that intelligently adjusts performance and power consumption as needed to maximize battery life.

These advantages give OEMs more flexibility to build thin and light PCs, including emerging dual-screen and foldable-screen PCs. There have been three recent PC designs with Lakefield processors, co-developed by Intel, the Surface Neo, a dual-screen device that Microsoft pre-released in October 2019, and the Galaxy Book that Samsung unveiled at its developer conference later that month. S, and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, which debuted at CES 2020 and will start shipping in the middle of this year.