Intel's 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs might be a refresh of Alder Lake but they won't be just a standard clock bump like previous generations. The Raptor Lake CPU lineup is expected to come with a range of improvements, one of them being DLVR.

Intel Raptor Lake CPUs To Utilize DLVR 'Digital Linear Voltage Regulator' To Conserve Power & Improve Performance

The information regarding Intel's Raptor Lake CPUs utilizing the new DLVR 'Digital Linear Voltage Regulator' technology comes from Reddit through a patent which was first discovered by insider, UnderFox. Underfox has been covering patents of various companies and disclosing useful data that gets us an insight on upcoming technologies. The DLVR was also seen mentioned within the leaked slides discovered by Videocardz a while back. Like Haswell's FIVR, the DLVR will be utilized on Raptor Lake CPUs as an on-chip voltage regulator.

The basic idea behind Raptor Lake's new power delivery architecture proposal is to include a digital linear voltage regulator (DLVR) as a voltage clamp placing in parallel to the primary VR, reducing CPU VID and thereby also reducing processor core power consumption. pic.twitter.com/n7kwjwTY9C

— Underfox (@Underfox3) August 19, 2021

Intel has recently published more details regarding DLVR in a patent titled 'Digital Linear Regulator Clamping Method and Apparatus'. The patent explains that DLVR will act as a secondary regulator in addition to the main voltage regulator that will be featured on the motherboard for the CPU. The purpose of the secondary DLVR regulator is to lower the power consumption in a cost-effective way and also through a process that requires less complexity.

Currently, Intel CPUs that rely on motherboards for voltage regulations can sip in higher than the usual voltage that resulting in higher heat and power consumption. The main suspects in this are the motherboard load-line calibration (LLc) and the CPU's own current requirement along with the motherboard voltage regulator sometimes causing inaccuracies in voltage management. The DLVR will act as a safeguard against these and will help keep the voltage numbers in check for the CPU & result in lower power consumption and heat generation.

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The patent also shows that Intel Raptor Lake CPUs with DLVR can reduce voltage by 160mV, a 20-25% drop compared to traditional designs. A drop of 21% in voltage also means that the CPU gains roughly 7% higher performance. In addition to this, the Raptor Lake CPUs with DLVR will also sip in lower voltage to reach the current (Ampere) targets with a more efficient V-I Curve.

Plot 500 shows that is possible to eliminate as much as 160 mV of the CPU voltage Vin, which translates to about 25% to 25% decrease of the CPU power as shown in plot 520. Here, the portion showing the power saving beyond 40A does not take into account the D-LVR losses. In this example, a 21% drop in the CPU is translated to approximately 7% performance gain."

via Freepatents

Intel's Raptor Lake lineup, more specifically the laptop variants, is expected to utilize the DLVR tech. Along with DLVR, the CPU lineup is also expected to offer increased core/thread counts, a refined architecture design in the form of Raptor Cove, higher clocks, more cache, and support for faster DDR5/LPDDR5X memory. The family is supposed to launch by the end of 2022.