Gracemont (microarchitecture)

Gracemont

General information
Launched	November 4, 2021;3 years ago (2021-11-04) [1]
Marketed by	Intel
Designed by	Intel
Common manufacturer	Intel
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	0.7 GHz to 4.3 GHz
Cache
L1 cache	96 KB per core: 64 KB instructions 32 KB data
L2 cache	2 or 4 MB per module
L3 cache	3 MB per module
Architecture and classification
Instruction set	x86-64
Extensions	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, FMA3, AVX-VNNI, AES-NI, CLMUL, RDRAND, SHA, TXT, VT-d, VT-x
Physical specifications
Cores	4 per module
Products, models, variants
Product code names	Alder Lake (client) Raptor Lake (client)
History
Predecessor	Tremont
Successor	Crestmont

Gracemont is a microarchitecture for low-power processors used in systems on a chip (SoCs) made by Intel, and is the successor to Tremont. Like its predecessor, it is also implemented as low-power cores in a hybrid design of the Alder Lake, Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors. ^[2]

Design

Gracemont is the fourth generation out-of-order low-power Atom microarchitecture, built on the Intel 7 manufacturing process. ^[3]

The Gracemont microarchitecture has the following enhancements over Tremont: ^{[4] [3]}

• Level 1 cache per core:
  • eight-way-associative 64 KB instruction cache
  • eight-way-associative 32 KB data cache
• New On-Demand Instruction Length Decoder
• Instruction issue increased to five per clock (from four)
• Instruction retire increased to eight per clock (from seven)
• Execution ports (functional units) there are now 17 (from eight)
• Reorder buffer increased to 256 entries (from 208)
• Improved branch prediction
• Support for AVX, AVX2, FMA3 and AVX-VNNI instructions ^[5]
• 2 or 4 MB shared L2 cache per 4-core cluster ^[3] Alder Lake-S/H/P/U family has 2 MB. Raptor Lake-S/H/P/U family has 4 MB.

Technology

• System on a chip (SoC) architecture
• 3D tri-gate transistors
• Thermal design power (TDP)
  • 10 W desktop processors
  • 6 W mobile processors

List of Gracemont processors

Main articles: Alder Lake and Raptor Lake

The microarchitecture is used as the efficient cores of the 12th generation of Intel Core hybrid processors (codenamed "Alder Lake"), the 13th generation of Intel Core hybrid processors (codenamed "Raptor Lake") and the 14th generation of Intel Core hybrid processors (codenamed "Raptor Lake Refresh"). It's also used in the Alder Lake-N line-up as the only core cluster, intended for low-power applications.

Alder Lake-N

Branding	Model	Cores (threads)	Clock rate (GHz)		GPU				Cache		TDP		Release date	Price (USD) [a]
			Base	Turbo	Model	EUs	Clock rate (GHz)		L2	L3	Base	cTDP Down
							Base	Turbo
Core i3	N305	8 (8)	1.8	3.8	UHD Graphics	32	?	1.25	2 MB	6 MB	15 W	9 W	Jan 3, 2023	$309
	N300		1.1								7 W	—
Intel Processor	N200	4 (4)	0.8	3.7				0.75			6 W			$193
	N100		0.8	3.4		24								$128
	N97		2.0	3.6			0.85	1.2			12 W			$128
	N95		1.7	3.4		16	?				15 W			?
	N50	2 (2)	1.0	3.4			0.6	0.75			6 W			$128
Atom	x7425E	4 (4)	1.5			24	0.8	1.0			12 W			$58
	x7213E	2 (2)	1.7	3.2		16					10 W			$47
	x7211E		1.0				0.6				6 W			$39

1. Price is Recommended Customer Price (RCP) at launch. RCP is the trade price that processors are sold by Intel to retailers and OEMs. Actual MSRP for consumers is higher.

See also

• List of Intel CPU microarchitectures

References

1. Cutress, Ian (October 27, 2021). "Intel 12th Gen Core Alder Lake for Desktops: Top SKUs Only, Coming November 4th". AnandTech. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
2. Cutress, Ian (August 14, 2020). "Intel Alder Lake: Confirmed x86 Hybrid with Golden Cove and Gracemont for 2021". AnandTech. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
3. Cutress, Ian; Frumusanu, Andrei (August 19, 2021). "Intel Architecture Day 2021: Alder Lake, Golden Cove, and Gracemont Detailed". AnandTech. Retrieved August 31, 2022.
4. "Gracemont – Microarchitectures – Intel". WikiChip. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
5. Shilov, Anton (October 7, 2020). "Intel's Upcoming Gracemont Microarchitecture to Support AVX, AVX2, and AVX-VNNI". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved September 14, 2022.