Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU Gets Detailed Die Shots: 3nm Arrow Lake Compared To 10nm Raptor Lake

We have our first look at the detailed die shots of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, the flagship CPU in the Arrow Lake desktop family.

Intel's First Tiled CPU For Desktop PCs: Intel Core Ultra 9 285K "Arrow Lake" Die Shots Reveal The Heart of The Chip

Previously, we saw an Intel Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" Desktop CPU get delidded and now, we have our first die shots of the CPU which focuses on its various tiles and also gives us a close-up of the Compute Tile that incorporates the next-generation Lion Cove P and Skymont E cores. These die shots come from ASUS China's manager, Tony Yu.

All of the building blocks of Arrow Lake CPUs are put together in a tiled fashion with a total of six tiles which include:

• Compute Tile (TSMC N3B)
• Graphics Tile (TSMC N5P)
• SOC Tile (TSMC N6)
• I/O Tile (TSMC N6)
• 2 x Filer Tile (N/A)
• Base Tile (Intel 1227.1)

Besides the five operational tiles, there are also two filer tiles on the Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" CPUs which are designed to maintain structure integrity. According to Intel itself, the filer tiles are designed to offer a uniform, cavity-free surface for the heat spreader to sit on. Not having this can lead to the IHS being bent or even crushed, leading to damage and unwarranted operation on the chip.

The main tile on the CPU is the Compute Tile which features up to 8 Lion Cove P-Cores and a total of 16 Skymont E-Cores. Unlike the last generation Raptor Lake and Alder Lake families which had P-Cores and E-Cores sitting on two separate areas of the compute tile, the Arrow Lake CPUs combine the P-Cores and E-Cores together, leading to a robust Ring Bus interconnect fabric & better thermal management too.

Main features of the Intel Arrow Lake Compute Tile:

• Based on TSMC N3B (vs Raptor Lake Intel 10nm++)
• Up To 8 P-Cores (Lion Cove)
• Up To 16 E-Cores (Skymont)
• Ring Bus Interconnect

Main features of the Intel Arrow Lake SoC Tile:

• Based on TSMC N6
• DDR5 Memory Controller (5600 MT/s Native Speeds)
• UDIMM/CUDIMM/CAMMII Support
• Up To 13 TOPS NPU3
• Media Engine (H.264/H.265/AV1)
• PCIe 5.0 x16 For dGPU

Main features of the Intel Arrow Lake I/O Tile:

• Based on TSMC N6
• 1x PCIe 5.0 x4 (SSD)
• 1x PCIe 4.0 x4 (SSD)

The Intel Arrow Lake CPUs aren't a 100% chiplet design and while each tile is a separate entity that makes use of a different process technology and functions differently too, they are featured on the same base tile and packaged together in a way that looks like a singular die.

If there wasn't the very obvious border lining between the tiles, you couldn't tell Arrow Lake apart from a standard Raptor or Alder Lake CPU. AMD on the other hand has chiplets that are separated far out on the same PCB and connected via Infinity Fabric.

Other Tiles on the Intel Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" CPUs will include the Graphics Tile which is equipped with 4 Xe-LPG "Alchemist" cores, the SoC Tile which houses the PCIe 5.0 x16 controller along with the NPU, Media/Video Engines, and the I/O tile. The Compute Tile is based on the TSMC N3B process node which is also a first for Intel's Desktop lineup that has gone with an external node while previous generations were made on Intel's processes.

The Intel Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" CPUs including the Ultra 9 285k launch on the 24th of October so not a lot of time is left before we get to see these chips in action.

News Source: Bilibili

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