https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/xeon/xeon... shows at least six volumes of datasheets, and I still haven't found a instruction set refence. I have found https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/xeon/xeon... (helpfully labeled "Datasheet, volume 2", rather than anything related to it's contents) which describes a subset of the aformentioned ten thousand random control registers. So no, Intel does not make [simple cores], it makes heaping piles of shit complete with malware ("Intel® Management Engine") buried at D22:F0 on a interal PCI bus.
It isn't simple, it's designed to be incorrect (and even the parts that are supposed to be correct aren't), and I'm not surprised it fails on fast as well.
> I still haven't found a instruction set reference.
X86-64, SSE, AVX, AVX-512, AES-NI, etc. Their key selling point is software compatibility.
> Intel does not make [simple cores]
The cores are quite simple by today’s standards; otherwise Intel wouldn’t be able to pack 72 of them on a single chip. IME is unrelated to the cores, it’s a separate piece of silicon.
But if you don’t like the IME and don’t need backward compatibility with x86, maybe you’ll like this: https://www.qualcomm.com/products/qualcomm-centriq-2400-proc... But again, performance benefits of the architecture (48 simple cores) is questionable, GPUs are way faster for parallelizable number crunching, and you need single thread performance for almost everything else.
It isn't simple, it's designed to be incorrect (and even the parts that are supposed to be correct aren't), and I'm not surprised it fails on fast as well.