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Bonnell µarch

General Info

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Bonnell was a microarchitecture for Intel's 45 nm ultra-low power microprocessors first introduced in 2008 for their then-new Atom family. Bonnell, which was named after the highest point in Austin - Mount Bonnell, was Intel's first x86-compatible microarchitecture designed to target the ultra-low power market.

Codenames

Chipset	Platform	PHC	Core	Target
Poulsbo	Menlow		Silverthorne	MIDs
Poulsbo	Menlow		Diamondville	Nettops
	Moorestown	Langwell	Lincroft	MIDs
	Pine Trail	Tiger Point	Pineview	Nettops
	Queens Bay	Topcliff	Tunnel Creek	Embedded
	Queens Bay	Topcliff	Stellarton	Embedded + Altera FPGA
			Sodaville	CE
			Groveland	CE

Generation successor

First Generation		Second Generation
Silverthorne	→	Lincroft
Diamondville	→	Pineview
		Tunnel Creek
		Stellarton
		Sodaville
		Groveland

Architecture

Bonnell's primary goals were:

1. Reduce power consumption,
2. while staying fully x86-compatible,
3. at acceptable performance

Performance/Power new rule: +1% performance for at most +1% power consumption.

Memory Hierarchy

• Cache
  • Hardware prefetchers
  • L1 Cache:
    • 32 KB 8-way set associative instruction
      • 1 read and 1 write port
    • 24 KB 6-way set associative data
      • 1 read and 1 write port
    • 8 transistors (instead of 6) to reduce voltage
    • Per core
  • L2 Cache:
    • 512 KB 8-way set associative
    • ECC
    • Shrinkable from 512 KB to 128 KB (2-way)
    • Per core
  • L3 Cache:
    • No level 3 cache
  • RAM
    • Maximum of 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB

Note that the L1 cache for data and instructions were originally both 32 KB (8-way), however due to power restrictions, the L1d$ was later reduced to 24 KB.

Functional Units

The number of functional units were kept to minimum to cut on power consumption.

• 2 Integer ALUs (1 for jumps, 1 for shifts)
• 2 FP ALUs (1 adder, 1 for others)
• No Integer multiplier & divider

Pipeline

Much like other x86 microarchitectures, Bonnell converts the complex instructions into finer micro-ops when needed. However, most instructions in Bonnell do not break down into simpler micro-ops (since Bonnell is not OoOE, there is no real advantage in doing so anyway). Most instructions actually correspond very closely to the original x86 instructions. Intel estimates that only 5% of common software require instructions to be split up. Bonnell has a 16-stage pipeline with a 13-stage miss penalty. Bonnell is a dual-issue superscalar but with in-order execution (in fact, first microarchitecture since Pentium Pro to not feature a OoOE). The elimination of reordering logic allowed for lower power consumption and small die area. This does imply the overall MPU is less efficient in managing its own resources; memory accesses and FP operations also stall the whole pipeline. Bonnell employed Safe Instruction Recognition (SIR) and Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) to bring performance to acceptable level. Intel claimed sub-20% power consumption penalty while improving performance between 30% and 50%.

The longer pipeline allows a more evenly spreading of heat across the chip with more units. This also allows a higher clock rate.

• Instruction Fetch
  • 3 stages
  • 8 Bytes/Cycle (lower if SMT)
• Instruction Decode
  • 3 stages
  • Instructions with up to 3 prefixes/Cycle
• Instruction Dispatch
  • 2 stages
• Source Operand Read
  • 1 stage
    • reading register operand
• Data Cache Access
  • 3 stages
    • 1 stage for calculating
    • 2 stages for reading cache
• Execution
  • 2 clusters
    • integers
      • quick cache access due to direct connection
    • floating point & SIMD
• Exception & MT Handling
  • 2 stages
• Commit
  • 1 stage

Multithreading

Bonnell has support for multithreading - up to two threads per core. However each thread compete for the same resources which does inherently means they run slower than they would if they were to run alone.

Branch Prediction

• Two-level adaptive predictor
• 12-bit branch history register
• Pattern history table has 4096 entries (shared between threads)
• Branch buffer target has 128 entries (4-way, 32 sets)
• Unconditional jumps are ignored
• Always-taken and never-taken are marked in the table
• Penalties:
  • 13 stages for miss prediction
  • 7 stages for correct prediction but missing branch target buffer (BTB)

Die

	BIC - Bus Interface Cluster MEC - Memory Cluster Execution & L1d$ FPC - FP/SIMD execution Cluster IEC - Integer Execution Cluster FEC - Front-End Cluster & L1i$ FSB - Front Side Bus

• The die is 3.1mm x 7.8mm (24.2mm²)

Cores

First Generation

First generation of Bonnell-based microprocessors introduced 2 cores: Silverthorne for ultra-mobile PCs and mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and Diamondville for ultra cheap notebooks and desktops.

Silverthorne

Main article: Silverthorne

Silverthorne was the codename for a series of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) introduced in 2008. These processors had 1 core and 2 threads with a FSB operating at 400 MHz-533 MHz.

Diamondville

Main article: Diamondville

Diamondville was the codename for the series of ultra cheap notebooks and desktops introduced in 2008. Diamondville is very much a soldered-on-motherboard derivative of Silverthorne with faster FSB (operating at 533 MHz - 667 MHz). The dual-core version is an MCM (Multi Chip Module) Silverthorne variant.

Second Generation

First generation of Bonnell-based microprocessors while being low power had to work with the older 90 nm process 945GSE chipset and 82801GBM I/O controller with a TDP of almost 9.5 watts - almost 4 times that of the processor itself. Second generation Bonnell-based microprocessors aimed to address this issue by integrating a memory controller and GPU on-chip. This drastically reduced power consumption and cost.

Lincroft

Main article: Lincroft

Lincroft is the codename for Bonnell-based Silverthorne's successor. Lincroft integrates on-die the graphics and memory controller.

Pineview

Main article: Pineview

Pineview was the codename for second generate Bonnell-based processors which integrated a memory controller, Direct Media Interface (DMI) link, and the GMA 3150 GPU. Pineview is the successor for Diamondville, targeting the same ultra cheap desktops, nettops and netbooks.

Tunnel Creek

Main article: Tunnel Creek

Tunnel Creek was the codename for a series of MPUs for embedded applications.

Stellarton

Main article: Stellarton

Stellarton was the codename for a series of MPUs for embedded applications. Stellarton is the Tunnel Creek core packaged with an Altera FPGA.

Sodaville

Main article: Sodaville

Sodaville is the codename for a series of consumer electronics system on a chip (e.g. set-top box).

Groveland

Main article: Sodaville

Sodaville is the codename for a series of consumer electronics MPUs (e.g. smart TVs).