Análise da Evolução dos Processadores Intel Core i3 (2010–2019) com Base nos Dados do SPEC.org

Abstract

Processor performance evolution is critical to the computing industry. The period from 2010 to 2019 encapsulates a highly volatile phase for Intel, marked by the stagnation of the 14 nm lithography and the resurgence of competition. This work seeks to answer the question: "What was the rhythm of performance evolution for Intel Core i3 processors between 2010 and 2019?". To do this, a quantitative analysis was performed, correlating data from standardized benchmarks (SPEC CPU2006 and SPEC CPU2017) with the architectural specifications (core, clock, cache, and memory) of eight distinct Core i3 processor generations. The results demonstrate that the pace of evolution was neither constant nor moderate, but rather volatile and driven by different bottlenecks at different times. The first phase (2010-2016) was marked by IPC gains and the resolution of memory bottlenecks with the introduction of DDR4. The second phase (2017-2019) revealed a strategic shift, where Intel sacrificed single-thread performance (reducing clock speed) to double the physical cores, prioritizing parallelism.