Intel has been facing challenges lately, but the ‘Royal Core’ project, reportedly scrapped by CEO Pat Gelsinger, promised to be a game-changer. This ambitious endeavor, spearheaded by former AMD architect Jim Keller, envisioned a groundbreaking CPU architecture that could have shaken up the processor landscape.
‘Royal Core’ was designed to be a significant departure from Intel’s existing Core architecture, representing the most substantial upgrade in decades. The project aimed to dynamically split performance cores (P-Cores) into smaller cores, known as ‘Rentable Units,’ as needed. This innovative approach offered the potential for a unique balance between raw performance and efficiency.
The ‘Royal Core’ vision was to be implemented in future Intel processors, starting with the ‘Arrow Lake’ architecture in 2024. Interestingly, Hyper-Threading was removed from the design, as Intel anticipated the shift towards this new dynamic core system.
However, reports suggest that CEO Pat Gelsinger canceled the project, despite its potential. The decision raises questions about Intel’s long-term strategy and its ability to compete with AMD, which has been steadily gaining ground in the CPU market.
Detailed information about the ‘Royal Core’ project, including its roadmap, was leaked by Moore’s Law Is Dead (MLID). The leaked information reveals that ‘Beast Lake,’ which was initially planned as a stepping stone to ‘Royal Core,’ would have incorporated a 12P+16E core design. However, ‘Beast Lake Next’ was supposed to be a full realization of the ‘Royal Core 2.0’ vision, with a 6P+0E core design and the revolutionary ‘Rentable Units’ feature. These ‘Rentable Units’ could split into 2 threads per unit, allowing for a dynamic change in thread count depending on the application’s needs.
The leaked information also suggests that ‘Royal Core’ cores were expected to offer double the instruction-per-clock (IPC) performance compared to Intel’s existing Raptor Lake architecture. This indicates the ambitious nature of the project and its potential to significantly improve Intel’s performance capabilities.
The cancellation of ‘Royal Core’ has left many in the industry wondering about Intel’s long-term vision for its CPU architecture. The project’s demise raises concerns about Intel’s ability to innovate and compete effectively in the rapidly evolving processor market.
