Intel is taking an unconventional approach with its 14th Generation Core processors. These will be the first consumer offerings to feature a chiplet or tiled architecture in addition to a hybrid core design. However, that’s not the surprising part. The mobile chips are going to come under the Meteor Lake family while the desktop range will be codenamed Arrow Lake. Each will be based on different core architectures and process nodes:
Meteor Lake-P will arrive in 2023 for notebooks and high-performance laptops with a total of 32 cores: 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores [not confirmed, just speculation]. The CPU chiplet/tile will be fabbed on Intel’s 4nm node while the graphics tile will leverage TSMC’s 3nm node. The I/O die will likely feature a legacy Intel process node. Meteor Lake is expected to showcase the next generation of Foveros 3D stacking packaging. We’re going to see multiple different lineups based on this architecture, including 65W/125W high-performance HX CPUs for gamers and content creators.
For Arrow Lake-S, we’re looking at a 1H 2024 launch. These desktop processors will leverage Intel’s 20A or 2nm process node for the CPU chiplet and TSMC’s 3nm node for the GPU chiplet. We’ll get 16 P-cores and 16-E cores [speculation]. The core architectures (at least the P-core) will be the successors to Meteor Lake and as a result, be an entirely new generation in practice. The GPU chiplet will be the same as the one used by Meteor. Going by this roadmap, it would seem that Intel plans on leaving the desktop CPU market largely unattended for one and a half years. Raptor Lake which is essentially a refresh is slated to launch in the latter half of this year. After that, we’ll have to wait for roughly 1.5 years for Arrow Lake.
All-in-all, Meteor Lake is a halo launch for Intel featuring a slew of new technologies from Foveros, the Intel 4 node, a chiplet/tiled design, a new graphics architecture as well as two brand-new core microarchitectures. Arrow Lake is just a follow-up in desktop form with a more advanced process node (20A/2nm).
