Recently, some netizens shared the architecture information of the Intel Ocean Cove kernel, which was developed by the Hillsboro team and has been patented. Surprisingly, the details of Ocean Cove's architecture seem strikingly similar to the Zen architecture presentation document that AMD shared at HotChips 2017. After the news came out, it immediately attracted the attention of many PC enthusiasts.
Figure: Zen architecture on the top and Ocean Cove architecture on the bottom
Judging from the patent documents filed by Intel, the frame diagram cited in it is almost identical in layout to the Zen architecture, from the bottommost execution to the topmost hierarchy and chip design, just like a replica. Unlike the Zen architecture, which uses a 14nm process, the Ocean Cove architecture uses the Intel 4 process, which is the original 7nm process. However, some industry professionals pointed out that this is only a description of the "working principle of modern CPUs", mainly involving security and monitoring aspects, and has little relevance to the design of CPU architecture.
To this end, Intel officially issued a statement clarifying the relevant situation. According to information provided by Wccftech, Intel's statement is as follows:
When filing a patent application, it is a common practice to cite relevant technology that exists in the industry. U.S. Patent No. 11,294,809 discloses Intel's innovations in the context of alternative implementations and does not attempt to reproduce or patent any other company's inventions. Intel respects the intellectual property rights of all parties.
In the end, this is just a small storm, in fact, there is nothing wrong with Intel's approach, just a misunderstanding of non-professionals. However, it can be seen from this incident that the Intel Ocean Cove architecture may be inspired by the AMD Zen architecture and draw design inspiration from it. Learning from your competitors' strengths is not a bad thing, learning from each other makes better progress.