BCM4916 process?

[jixiangyuan]

Hi, I read that the BCM4908 is made using the 28nm process, and the B4912 is made using TSMC’s 16nm process, but I can’t find any information about the BCM4916 regarding process node online. Does anyone know which process it use?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Hi, I read that the BCM4908 is made using the 28nm process, and the B4912 is made using TSMC’s 16nm process, but I can’t find any information about the BCM4916 regarding process node online. Does anyone know which process it use?

Why would anyone care what size process it uses?

 

[jixiangyuan]

Why would anyone care what size process it uses?

Maybe because it has something to do with the temperature and power usage of the cpu? If we are starting to ask questions, why would anyone reply to a thread about which they know nothing

 

[ColinTaylor]

Maybe because it has something to do with the temperature and power usage of the cpu? If we are starting to ask questions, why would anyone reply to a thread about which they know nothing

It just seemed like a strange question. I buy a router based on its features, availability and price. The size of the process used to create one of the chips inside it is not a consideration for me.

 

[jixiangyuan]

It just seemed like a strange question. I buy a router based on its features, availability and price. The size of the process used to create one of the chips inside it is not a consideration for me.

I understand that. It just one of those things I want to know after purchasing any tech products. Also there were numerous people posting their concerns about the temperature of their CPU inside of their router, particularly with BCM4908, so I was wondering if this will happen to BCM4916 as well in the summer, if it use the same process, with higher clock speed (compare to BCM4912) and with fan-less design (ASUS BE98)

 

[thiggins]

@ColinTaylor It's a perfectly fine question.

@jixiangyuan Unfortunately, I also have no answer for you.

 

[RMerlin]

Broadcom has always been very secretive with their specs, often only providing them on a need-to-know basis to actual customers. The only information publicly available is their specs sheet:

BCM4916 Quad-core ARM v8 compliant 64-bit processor for residential access point applications

Wi-Fi 7 doubles the bandwidth of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E with the introduction of 320 MHz channels. BCM4916 is a quad-core ARM v8 compliant 64 bit Processor for residential access point (AP) applications.

www.broadcom.com

Based on the significant clock increase between the BCM4912 and BCM4916 while still using the same B53 cores, it would make sense to assume they also went through a node shrink. However any improvement in their power budget was most likely reallocated to the increased clock and increase in the available 10 Gbps interfaces, so I would expect thermals to be fairly similar to the BCM4912.

 

[jixiangyuan]

Broadcom has always been very secretive with their specs, often only providing them on a need-to-know basis to actual customers. The only information publicly available is their specs sheet:

BCM4916 Quad-core ARM v8 compliant 64-bit processor for residential access point applications

Wi-Fi 7 doubles the bandwidth of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E with the introduction of 320 MHz channels. BCM4916 is a quad-core ARM v8 compliant 64 bit Processor for residential access point (AP) applications.

www.broadcom.com

Based on the significant clock increase between the BCM4912 and BCM4916 while still using the same B53 cores, it would make sense to assume they also went through a node shrink. However any improvement in their power budget was most likely reallocated to the increased clock and increase in the available 10 Gbps interfaces, so I would expect thermals to be fairly similar to the BCM4912.

This could be true, but after I saw ASUS advertise that the BE98 has 18% better heat dissipation, I started to think that Broadcom might still be using 16nm.

It should be pretty easy to find out if we can monitor the temperature of the CPU for both models. The BCM4916 is a Quad B53 at 2.6GHz, while the BCM4912 is a Quad B53 at 2GHz; that’s a 30% increase.

Let’s assume that the power consumption/temperature has a linear relationship with frequency (I know it’s not exactly that). Combined with 18% better heat dissipation, if Broadcom still on the 16nm node, the CPU temperature would definitely be higher than that of the BCM4912. If Broadcom moved onto the 12nm node, then the CPU temperature could potentially be lower or at the same level as the BCM4912.

Oh, I also emailed Broadcom and asked them about this, but they didn’t want to disclose any information other than what’s on their website.