It appears that Intel is trying to get the most out of its x86 "small" cores in all of its product lines, and not just in entry-level client processors. These cores will be part of Intel's current and future hybrid processors, and have been serving Intel's renowned Atom line for low-power, high-core servers. Now, under this product line, Intel is preparing the Atoms "Grand Ridge", with up to 24 cores per processor and support for PCI-Express 4.0 and even DDR5 RAM.
In recent times, Intel has been designing under the Atom family of products processors for micro servers, NAS and network infrastructure hardware that base their operation on large numbers of low-power cores. With the introduction of Grand Ridge, compatibility with new technologies that have been on the market for a long time such as PCI-Express 4.0, but also compatibility with the next generation of RAM, DDR5, is finally implemented.
Intel Grand Ridge architecture targets 5G base stations. This architecture would be replacing what is Snow Ridge. The characteristics that this Intel architecture presents would be the support for DDR5 in dual channel of up to 5600 MHz of frequency and support for PCI Express 4.0.
The "Grand Ridge" silicon is scheduled to be built on Intel's 7nm HLL + fabrication node, and features 24 "Gracemont" cores in six clusters of four cores each. Each of these clusters shares a 4MB L2 cache between the four cores, while an L3 cache of as yet unknown size protects transfers between the six clusters.
Intel is implementing in these processors its SCF (scalable coherent fabric) interconnection between the various components of the Grand Ridge SoC. In addition to the six core groups, the silicon features a dual channel DDR5 integrated memory controller and a 16-lane PCI-Express 4.0 root complex. It also features fixed-function hardware that speeds up network stack processing. It incorporates various USB and GPIO connectivity options relevant to 5G base station configurations.
The roadmap shows this architecture for 2021, however, it would be based on HLL + based on 7nm, which Intel recently mentioned would bring problems in the development of this manufacturing technology, so the launch date will change.
Intel Grand Ridge's 24-core Atom core design will be clocked at up to 2.6 GHz, which means the series will be 400 MHz faster than the previous one.