An vital a part of qualification testing is working the processor by all kinds of benchmarks and stress assessments to verify it performs correctly in every workload. That’s one cause that we continually see “leaks” of recent and upcoming processors as their work will get sorted into benchmark databases and filed in distributed computing tasks.
We have one other such leak right now, and it is over at Rensselaer Polytechnic’s MilkyWay@Home mission. This is a distributed computing platform based mostly on BOINC that’s trying to create an correct 3D simulation of your complete Milky Way galaxy. While that is the acknowledged aim of the mission, it is actually extra about creating and enhancing resililent and fault-tolerant algorithms for internet-based distributed computing.
Like most BOINC tasks, the MilkyWay@dwelling effort maintains a database of the entire machines which have contributed to the trouble, and the electrical eye of Twitter bot @Benchleaks famous a curious entry in that database. We’ve screenshotted the related portion above, however you’ll be able to go take a look on the entry for your self if you would like. What’s notable about this entry is precisely what it’s.
The solely different notable information level from the MilkyWay@dwelling database entry is the cache itemizing, which exhibits 1 MB. This worth sometimes signifies the L2 cache of the processor. We heard late final yr that Zen 4 would function double the L2 cache per core in comparison with Zen 3, and this additionally completely strains up with that info, confirming the leak from Hans de Vries.
Given that we’re seeing this type of leak of this new CPU, these chips cannot be too far out from launch. Barring the invention of some main {hardware} errata, we might estimate that we’ll see Phoenix Point laptops early subsequent yr, however it’s not unattainable that AMD may hurry issues alongside and get the chips out in This autumn of this yr.