Confusion round Intel’s next-gen Meteor Lake CPU is on the rise. Intel’s first chiplet chip was lately confirmed as on monitor for launch later this 12 months (opens in new tab). However the huge unknown entails the query of whether or not Meteor Lake will make it to the desktop and in that case, in what type.
The newest Meteor Lake rumours (opens in new tab) communicate of a cancelled desktop Meteor Lake-S CPU, changed by a by-product of the cell Meteor Lake-P, which in flip can be used as a low-end SKU to sit down alongside Intel’s Arrow Lake (opens in new tab). What’s Arrow Lake? That is the true desktop alternative for the present Raptor Lake thirteenth Gen CPUs.
Bought all that? Good, as a result of it virtually definitely misses the purpose. As we reported on earlier than, all of this hullabaloo could be traced again to early rumours across the new Intel CPU structure which revealed that Meteor Lake would solely provide a most of six Efficiency-cores (opens in new tab), a nominal downgrade on the earlier technology.
That, very clearly, is a step again from the eight Efficiency-cores in each twelfth Gen Alder Lake and thirteenth Gen Raptor Lake. Cue a lot hand wringing over a mooted specification stroll again by Intel. Although, in equity, it would not be fully with out precedent.
In spite of everything, Intel wound again from ten cores in Comet Lake, courtesy of the Core i9 10900K (opens in new tab), to simply eight cores for eleventh Gen Rocket Lake and the 11900K (opens in new tab). However Intel had very particular causes for doing that, specifically the necessity to backport some huge cores initially designed for its tardy 10nm node to the ageing 14nm course of.
However, with Meteor Lake, exactly the other is going on. It will likely be Intel’s first CPU on its upcoming Intel 4 course of (opens in new tab), the node previously referred to as 7nm. So, squeezing outsized cores into an outdated course of is not the problem on this case.
So, this is the factor about Meteor Lake. It is primarily a cell structure, that a lot could be very clear. Lest readers have forgotten, Intel introduced out two 10nm CPU households, Ice Lake (opens in new tab) and Tiger Lake (opens in new tab), which by no means made it to the desktop in any respect. They too had decrease core counts than Intel’s desktop chips of the day.
The query that follows is whether or not Meteor Lake will ultimately make it to the desktop after which whether or not that truly issues. Intel roadmaps point out the present Raptor Lake thirteenth gen CPU household will get a refresh later this 12 months.
At across the identical time, maybe just a little later in 2023, Meteor Lake is predicted to land in laptops. In 2024, in the meantime, the following Arrow Lake structure will hit the desktop with fashions extending all the best way to the highest of the stack, changing the present Core i9 13900K (opens in new tab), or regardless of the refreshed Raptor Lake flagship chip can be referred to as.
Intel hasn’t launched full technical particulars on both Meteor Lake or Arrow Lake as but, nevertheless it has mentioned each architectures are so-called disaggregated designs. In different phrases, they use chiplets somewhat than a single CPU die. Or tiles, in Intel parlance.
There can be a chiplet or tile for the CPU cores, an additional SoC tile, an IO extender tile, and at last a graphics tile. You may simply make out every of these tiles within the picture of Meteor Lake on the prime of this story.
Very seemingly, the core structure for Meteor Lake’s CPU tile and Arrow Lake’s CPU tile would be the identical or very related, simply as Alder Lake and Raptor Lake have basically the identical core structure.
Anyway, that architectural similarity is why Intel is ready to provide a single CPU mannequin, such because the Core i5 13400F (opens in new tab), utilizing each Alder Lake and Raptor Lake silicon interchangeably. The 2 generations are so related, it would not truly matter which is used.
Very seemingly, a lot the identical will apply to Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake. They’re related sufficient in CPU structure phrases that Intel can insert some nominally Meteor Lake-based CPUs into the decrease finish of its desktop CPU product stack, alongside its new Arrow Lake chips, and the distinction for the tip consumer can be invisible.
The precise particulars, nonetheless, might get very difficult. Will Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake share the SoC tile, as an example? If not, might Meteor Lake desktop use the Meteor Lake CPU tile, however the Arrow Lake SoC tile or vice versa, and so forth.
Finally, these are questions which might be pertinent for Intel’s inside planning somewhat than something that we as PC customers want to fret about. In abstract, then, if Intel’s roadmap stays the course there can be new desktop processors subsequent 12 months with CPU cores based mostly on the brand new Intel 4 course of, plus a strong GPU tile from TSMC, together with SoC and IO tiles.
A few of these CPU fashions can have six efficiency cores or fewer, plus a variable variety of effectivity cores. Others can have larger core counts. Whether or not these decrease to mid-range fashions are, strictly talking, Meteor Lake or Arrow Lake, will not matter an awesome deal in efficiency phrases as a result of they are going to be architecturally so related, simply because it would not matter whether or not sure thirteenth gen CPU fashions are Alder Lake or Raptor Lake. Both manner, you get the identical efficiency.
So, was Meteor Lake ever slated for the desktop? Does it even make sense to counsel it was cancelled for the desktop, solely to be resurrected in some restricted type for low finish SKUs alongside Arrow Lake?
Finally, it is all somewhat a storm in a teacup, little greater than gasoline for the fires of the net hearsay rounds. Meteor Lake could or could not make it to the desktop. But it surely most likely will not make a lot if any distinction to the efficiency of the CPUs we’ll all find yourself shopping for.