Intel peeled again the curtain on its 14th-gen Meteor Lake processors at Sizzling Chips 2022. Though we’ve got to attend for Thirteenth-gen Raptor Lake processors to make the rounds later this yr first, Meteor Lake is shaping as much as be an thrilling technology that brings Intel’s years-old plans full circle.
In mid-2021, Intel laid out a highway map main into 2025 that began with Twelfth-gen Alder Lake processors. Meteor Lake is the subsequent important step in that highway map, as Intel strikes all the way down to its Intel 4 manufacturing course of and begins to combine a number of dies onto a single chip. As an alternative of Intel manufacturing the whole lot, Meteor Lake will use dies from totally different distributors.
We acquired a take a look at a zoomed-back die shot that reveals separate compute, GPU, IO, and system-on-a-chip (SOC) tiles, every of which use a unique manufacturing course of. The primary compute die makes use of Intel 4, and the remainder of the die ought to use course of nodes from chipmaker TSMC. Intel isn’t able to reveal the precise nodes but, however earlier this yr, the corporate hinted at TSMC N3.
Intel remains to be designing the whole lot, however Meteor Lake seems to be just like the true place to begin for IDM 2.0 technique. Though the corporate has tapped different foundries for manufacturing prior to now, it hasn’t built-in these numerous course of applied sciences beneath one roof. Meteor Lake does that, enabled by Intel’s Foveros 3D packaging expertise.
Meteor Lake really has a fifth die that lives beneath the opposite 4, and that’s the Forveros die. It’s like a base for all the different logic on the chip, and Intel says it’s passive, transferring knowledge between the dies with out taking on further energy.
We don’t know a lot past the totally different tiles proper now, although. Meteor Lake will use the identical hybrid structure as Alder Lake and Raptor Lake, however with upgraded Redwood Cove efficiency cores and Crestmont effectivity cores. Rumors additionally level to Intel utilizing its next-gen Battlemage Xe-2 structure for the GPU, although the it’s attainable that Meteor Lake might use first-gen Arc graphics given its present timeline (Arc Alchemist GPUs use TSMC N6).
Meteor Lake additionally units up Intel’s future generations. In a briefing with press, Intel confirmed that Meteor Lake and the next Arrow Lake might be out there on desktop and cell, dispelling an outdated rumor that Meteor Lake would focus solely on laptops. Intel commented that Sixteenth-gen Lunar Lake processors have been initially focused for moveable laptops (15 watts and beneath) however wouldn’t touch upon the technology past that. We’re undecided what platforms Lunar Lake will goal but.
At this level, Intel has largely confirmed a leaked highway map that circulated in late 2021. We anticipate Meteor Lake processors in 2023, following the launch of Thirteenth-gen Raptor Lake processors in late 2022. Intel is rumored to be utilizing a brand new socket for Meteor Lake, however coolers suitable with Raptor Lake and Alder Lake will reportedly work.
Though Intel has misplaced some headway in course of expertise to AMD and TSMC, it’s promising to see Crew Blue executing on the plan it laid out greater than a yr in the past. That doesn’t imply Intel shoots to the lead, although, as AMD prepares its Ryzen 7000 CPUs for a 2022 launch.
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