Intel reported earlier this week that the company was successful in powering a single compute tile of its next-gen Meteor Lake CPUs. Back in March, Intel taped in the first 7nm Compute Tile so this marks another milestone in the development of Intel's next-generation x86 architecture and CPU family.
Intel Meteor Lake Compute Tile Achieves Power-On, CPU Delivers Outstanding Performance 'Right Where We Expected', Says CEO
Meteor Lake is Intel's 14th generation Core processor that is expected to release in 2023. The chip itself utilizes innovative technology with its Intel 4 (7nm) manufacturing process. Intel's testing was said to be successful and on target with their current fabrication plans, especially for almost two years ahead of release showing actual computational power.
On Intel 4, we had taped out our compute tile for Meteor Lake and this quarter it came out of the fab and powered up within 30 minutes with outstanding performance, right where we expected it to be. All told, this is one of the best lead product startups we have seen in recent memory, which speaks to the health of the process.
—Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO, during the company's earnings call that was held this week
For Intel, this breakthrough with their Meteor Lake processor is a new step towards the possibility of witnessing silicon chips processing information and being extremely stable. However, the concept does raise pessimism of whether it will provide above expected performance or even remain stable. Eventually, developers will be expected to alter as well as provide additional parts and technology to Meteor Lake. The largest hurdle right now is the cost of manufacturing, especially in this case with the current chip shortage and high cost of parts and devices.
Here's Everything We Know About The 14th Gen Meteor Lake 7nm CPUs
We already got some details from Intel such as the fact that Intel's Meteor Lake line of desktop and mobility CPUs are expected to be based on a new line of Cove core architecture. This is rumored to be known as the 'Redwood Cove' and will be based on a 7nm EUV process node. It is stated that the Redwood Cove is designed from the ground up to be an agnostic node which means that it can be fabricated at different fabs. There are references mentioned that point out to TSMC to be a backup or even a partial supplier for the Redwood Cove-based chips. This might tell us why Intel is stating multiple manufacturing processes for the CPU family.
The Meteor Lake CPUs may possibly be the first CPU generation from Intel to say farewell to the ring bus interconnect architecture. There are also rumors that Meteor Lake could be a fully 3D-Stacked design and could utilize an I/O die sourced from an external fab (TSMC sighted again). It is highlighted that Intel will be officially utilizing its Foveros Packaging Technology on the CPU to inter-connect the various dies on the chip (XPU). This also aligns with Intel referring to each tile on 14th Gen chips individually (Compute Tile = CPU Cores).
The Meteor Lake Desktop CPU family is expected to retain support on the LGA 1700 socket which is the same socket used by Alder Lake & Raptor Lake processors. We can expect DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5.0 support. The platform will support both DDR5 & DDR4 memory with the mainstream and budget tier options going for DDR4 memory DIMMs while the premium & high-end offerings going for DDR5 DIMMs. The site also lists down both Meteor Lake P and Meteor Lake M CPUs that will be aimed at mobility platforms.
Intel Mainstream Desktop CPU Generations Comparison:
| Intel CPU Family | Processor Process | Processors Cores/Threads (Max) | TDPs | Platform Chipset | Platform | Memory Support | PCIe Support | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandy Bridge (2nd Gen) | 32nm | 4/8 | 35-95W | 6-Series | LGA 1155 | DDR3 | PCIe Gen 2.0 | 2011 |
| Ivy Bridge (3rd Gen) | 22nm | 4/8 | 35-77W | 7-Series | LGA 1155 | DDR3 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2012 |
| Haswell (4th Gen) | 22nm | 4/8 | 35-84W | 8-Series | LGA 1150 | DDR3 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2013-2014 |
| Broadwell (5th Gen) | 14nm | 4/8 | 65-65W | 9-Series | LGA 1150 | DDR3 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2015 |
| Skylake (6th Gen) | 14nm | 4/8 | 35-91W | 100-Series | LGA 1151 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2015 |
| Kaby Lake (7th Gen) | 14nm | 4/8 | 35-91W | 200-Series | LGA 1151 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2017 |
| Coffee Lake (8th Gen) | 14nm | 6/12 | 35-95W | 300-Series | LGA 1151 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2017 |
| Coffee Lake (9th Gen) | 14nm | 8/16 | 35-95W | 300-Series | LGA 1151 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2018 |
| Comet Lake (10th Gen) | 14nm | 10/20 | 35-125W | 400-Series | LGA 1200 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2020 |
| Rocket Lake (11th Gen) | 14nm | 8/16 | 35-125W | 500-Series | LGA 1200 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 4.0 | 2021 |
| Alder Lake (12th Gen) | Intel 7 | 16/24 | 35-125W | 600 Series | LGA 1700 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2021 |
| Raptor Lake (13th Gen) | Intel 7 | 24/32 | 35-125W | 700-Series | LGA 1700 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2022 |
| Meteor Lake (14th Gen) | Intel 4 | TBA | 35-125W | 800 Series? | LGA 1700 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2023 |
| Arrow Lake (15th Gen) | Intel 4? | 40/48 | TBA | 900-Series? | TBA | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2024 |
| Lunar Lake (16th Gen) | Intel 3? | TBA | TBA | 1000-Series? | TBA | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2025 |
| Nova Lake (17th Gen) | Intel 3? | TBA | TBA | 2000-Series? | TBA | DDR5? | PCIe Gen 6.0? | 2026 |
The post Intel Achieves Power-On For Next-Gen Meteor Lake CPU Compute Tile, Delivers Outstanding Performance According To CEO by Jason R. Wilson appeared first on Wccftech.
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