Big.LITTLE microprocessor architectures explained, including coverage of ARM big.LITTLE and DynamIQ, Apple M1, and Intel's new performance hybrid architecture.
More information on Apple's transition to Arm processors is contained in my video 'Apple Goes ARM': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtYfTVksuio
And you can learn more about how CPUs work in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx-w2o-Lj8g
REFERENCES (in order by video segment)
IBM Power4, first multi-core processor press release:
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/power4/
Intel Xeon Platinum 9200 56 core CPU:
https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/benchmarks/server/xeon-scalable/platinum-9200-performance.html
ARM big.LITTLE technologies:
https://www.arm.com/why-arm/technologies/big-little
ARM big.LITTLE white paper: https://armkeil.blob.core.windows.net/developer/Files/pdf/white-paper/big-little-technology-the-future-of-mobile.pdf
ARM DynamIQ technologies:
https://www.arm.com/why-arm/technologies/dynamiq
Apple transition to Mac (ARM) silicon press release:
https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2020/06/apple-announces-mac-transition-to-apple-silicon/
Apple M1 press release:
https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2020/11/apple-unleashes-m1/
Apple M1 Pro & M1 Max press release:
https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2021/10/introducing-m1-pro-and-m1-max-the-most-powerful-chips-apple-has-ever-built/
Intel Alder Lake press release;
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/12th-gen-core-processors.html#gs.imxy7y
Intel Alder Lake i5-12600K CPU:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134589/intel-core-i512600k-processor-20m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz.html
Intel Alder Lake i7-12700K CPU:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134594/intel-core-i712700k-processor-25m-cache-up-to-5-00-ghz.html
Intel Alder Lake i9-12900K CPU: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134599/intel-core-i912900k-processor-30m-cache-up-to-5-20-ghz.html
Alter Lake CPUs stop games working:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/11/faulty-drm-breaks-dozens-of-games-on-intels-alder-lake-cpus/
Alder Lake DRM game issues mostly fixed:
https://uk.pcmag.com/processors/137497/intel-alder-lake-incompatibility-issue-with-drm-protected-games-is-mostly-fixed
Reported rumour about AMD Zen 5 big.LITTLE architecture:
https://moepc.net/amd-zen-5-codenamed-strix-point-will-take-the-big-little-architecture-using-the-3nm-process/
More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/explainingcomputers
You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: http://www.youtube.com/explainingthefuture
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction & changes
01:26 Single Core & Beyond
04:25 ARM big.LITTLE & DynamIQ
06:53 Apple M1
08:14 Intel Alder Lake
11:09 Future Diverse Architectures
#big.LITTLE #AlderLake #AppleM1 #ExplainingComputers
As many people have correctly pointed out, when I state that some server processors contain "a staggering 56 individual processing units", this is currently the highest count for an Intel server CPU. For AMD the figure is 64 cores. My apologies. Also note that I say "Intel 404" and not "Intel 4004" in the second section of the video. My brain is clearly failing (although the graphic for the chip is correct).
@kiodiekin Says:
in regards to the rk3399 big little archeticture. fo gaming if a emulator uses typically 4 cores how is the performance distributed? i see this is good for multi tasking but dont see the benefit when running 1 massive program with nothing else going on for processing. it seems the smaller chips clocked lower r getting the bulk of the work
@mihailvormittag6211 Says:
👍
@_specialneeds Says:
DON'T BUY APPLE PRODUCTS. Support right to repair!
@kennethconnors5316 Says:
One of your most important video's , and your take is so accurate ...................
@briankleinschmidt3664 Says:
I'm not sure about a quantum chip next to a CPU. Don't you have to keep your qbits close to 0 Kelvin?
@jaybeemaster896 Says:
It is nice of intel doing the big little procesor and hence changing the die shape to rectangal. Altough, they should had do the FEM for the bending, as it is doing now and then the cpu cooler is not doing its job properly. BTW, intel says it is not an issue, but a feature. :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkd_SWdSdIY
@jeffreywolsieffer4583 Says:
I hate to Admit It but, not being able to Get-on-line with the old RoloDex/Home-Computers seems like a Better Option.!
@alanhonlunli Says:
Still not sold on bL architectures. The fact that faster processors can finish a task and return to a low power state earlier diminishes the advantages of having separate power efficient cores. We all know why bL is used in theory, but in practice the actual power savings are not actualized.
The reality is that Intel's alderlake cpus drawl more power than their 11th gen counterparts both at load and at idle despite the big little architecture. Sooo... Where is the promised efficiency?
@beetwing Says:
Great educative video as always! Thanks!
@MasterKoala777 Says:
I still have this question though. For PCs which are always plugged to the wall outlet, why not just use all BIG cores? If overheating and down throttling is a problem, then lower the frequency to lower the temp. How are LITTLE cores faster in the case of desktop PCs?
Minor correction at 2:18: It was the Athlon “64” X2 (no “X” before 64).
@peterchapman3740 Says:
Put more ram and new ssd card in my old cop following your vids ,game i play still very laggy is new cpu or graphic card next
@udaaz Says:
Very nice video thank you
@linuxdeveloper2325 Says:
As usual, very good video! Thank you!
@kb8570 Says:
Amazing video!!! Thank you!
@averageguyvstheworld8601 Says:
Why can’t we get a solution to just use multiple processors on one machine? There are millions of old cpus around that could be recycled/repurposed to add more processing power and help eliminate waste.
@treyquattro Says:
CPU, GPU, IPU, NPU, QPU, APU, ... we're going to need a bigger alphabet!
@ifergal Says:
"Big Little"? is it April 1st already?
@IEnjoyCreatingVideos Says:
Nice video Chris! Thank you for sharing it with us💖👍😎JP
@richardpalmanteer9798 Says:
what ever happened to "Keep it simple stupid". lol Well, it looks like a lot of innovations are coming in computing and the advances are just going fast. Like you said, looking at the computer figuring out the speed of the CPU and the memory was easy back when. I'm working on my wife's old OptiPlex GX150 with a pentium III processor and 256mb of RAM DDR3 I have to replace a couple of Capacitors on the board but that's not a problem. I was a Slot Tech in our Casino and have repaired LCD gaming monitors with new caps and got them working again. Her computer is running Windows XP SP2.
@adityapandey7798 Says:
As the father of Pentium vinod dham once said " back in 80s it ws all about power and now it is about saving power while being sophisticated and multitasker". Hopefully, with the talk of setting up Fabs in my country, we might jump into chip market as well. fingers crossed🤞
@larrywebber2971 Says:
Very informative video and thanks for providing timely corrections.
@EvilAcri Says:
I hope this is only transitional period and that big/little returns to it's rightful place - two separate devices (or as separate as possible on collection of chiplets, see below), because it feels like it introduces decrease of performance and increase of power consumption. Also, it feels like ARM save transistors on, and Intel failed at power management (and that AMD will join this club only if they fail at that too). Waiting almost two weeks didn't help to dissuade me from writting this comment, sorry (especially, when it appears as part, or starter, of delusional fanboys' flamewar at first glance).
@ewalthari3880 Says:
Thanks, my native language is Spanish and your pronuntiation is perfect to learn tech concepts.
@DodgyBrothersEngineering Says:
Seems our future reason to upgrade may not be for more power as we are already at the point most of us have enough, but upgrade for better power efficiency.
@jaffarbh Says:
It's worth noting that in Intel's case, the E cores are ATOM based, while the P cores are iCore based. The ISA is slightly different and thus some advance instructions are disabled on the P cores for consistency.
@johneygd Says:
By the time we will have all in 1 chips with multiple functions in it,they will be probably use 1nm technology to allow such thing,so a chip could be made 50.000 times smaller then the first non commercial chips 😁
@LordWillyGee Says:
AMD and INTEL got lazy and let a little company (Arm Ltd), surpass anything today? Soon the 8 core with 6-10 GHz coming out soon from ARM.
@johnc3403 Says:
Christopher, the blue lower corners of your background and that slight blue halo make your "piece to camera" far less harsh and easier on the eye. 👍
@jaygames1980 Says:
Thanks!
@energymarketchile Says:
I hope that our contemporary technologists won't fall into the "farmer's decreasing productivity" paradox: Not for adding more tractors in a field you will necessarily get more productivity, as there is an inflection point where adding one additional tractor will cause a reduction in the overall throughput. Call it silicon red-tape if you will... And another interesting perspective to consider: We currently have computers literally a million times faster than those from the 80s, but the letters still take more or less the same time to be written...
@gacherumburu9958 Says:
👍
@rursus8354 Says:
arm produces nothing. They license the use of the arm architectures to other companies, such as Broadcom, STM, Microchip etc..
@dennistucker1153 Says:
Excellent coverage on this subject. Always a pleasure to your videos.
@canalsenhorpe Says:
Good explainning Cristian 😃🇧🇷
@Zardove Says:
Arm Ltd. Subsidiary of Japanese Company SoftBank Group and soon own buy NVidia.
It is a shame that globalization exists, to make the rich richer, that most of the brains in "countries" only work for the US.
It is disappointing that countries no longer exist except in theory and that in practice there are only multinationals, owned by the wealthy few, who have the right to life and death over all people on this planet.
Who decides how much things cost. Which make all "countries" dependent on money, on them. Anything with the word "global" is just a disguise of multinationals and most of the time the US.
It seems that the people are convinced that in order to build something, a house, a computer, etc. and to eat, you absolutely need money.
We should put them all in a wasteland with seven million dollars, gold, jewelry, platinum, for a year, come back, and see what they think...
There is no pride in working for others, and even less so, for multinationals which are getting richer and poorer and poorer.
There is nothing good in globalization, the loss of independence of countries, multinationals, infinite profits, the capitalist, which is Nazism in disguise.
@joeldoyle6359 Says:
Merry Christmas to you and your family, most good things come from you and knowledge empowers me. Thanks for that.
@jthorpe4droid Says:
Merry Christmas and Happy new year, thank you for all the great informative videos this year.
@CHITUS Says:
The unsung heros of this hardware innovation are the associated compiler and OS technology that allows the same code single-threaded to benefit from multiple CPUs. M1 is great, but the seemless and performant Intel-to-ARM translation layer in the OS is mindblowingly extraordinary to me.
@jrioublanc Says:
Thanks for this video. Nice clarification of today’s xPU configurations.
It’s clear that benchmarks will be more and more useful when we’ll have to chose a new computers.
@ericwood3709 Says:
I would like to see AMD or someone put out a proper M1 competitor for the PC market. Microsoft offers Windows for ARM, so all that remains is proper ARM CPUs for desktops to run it properly. I have an M1 Mac mini now and I'm absolutely loving it.
@samghost13 Says:
Those Alder Lakes are Bending like... really bad! I will stay with Threadripper!
@cr8t1v3marketing Says:
Thank you. I'm new to raspberry pi but your videos motivate me to get into things.
@johnllewellyn5977 Says:
Hi
@perlindholm4129 Says:
Idea - Assume energy has many turns and twists as a function (move electrons). Increasing the speed and energy makes turns earlier resulting in a dense heat. There should be a way to create CPU's that don't make many turns? I assume in a perfect circle you can go infinitely fast. So make the a CPU where C stands for Circular //Per Big little circles and you got an area cpu
@terrysmarina1737 Says:
Thanks Much, that clears up a lot.😁
@snarfusmaximus Says:
"Damn, the specs on your machine are insane! What do you use it for?"
"Arguing with strangers on the internet, and playing Space Invaders."
@bryanpope6573 Says:
More of an evolution. Nvidia released a 5-core Tegra 3 before big.Little was finalized. It had 4 a9 cores with a cmos 500mhz efficiency core. Initially neither it or the Exynos 5 Octa 5410 (1st official big.Little processor) seemed like it was really worth the extra engineering. It seems like it is now but it was a slow start.
@TheSadButMadLad Says:
Turbo mode on Intel processors. I remember a time when you could engage Turbo on Intel processors by pressing a button.
@lukasmaterna9763 Says:
I would like a video from you about VMware esxi on arm fling.
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