Tuesday, April 28th 2020
Intel's First 7nm Client Microarchitecture is "Meteor Lake"
Intel's first client-segment processor microarchitecture built on its own 7 nm silicon fabrication process will be codenamed "Meteor Lake." The codename began surfacing in driver files and technical documents, one of which was screengrabbed and leaked to the web by Komachi Ensaka. Not much else is known about it, except that it succeeds the 10 nm++ "Alder Lake," an ambitious attempt by Intel to replicate Arm big.LITTLE heterogenous core technology on the x86 architecture, by combining a number of high-power cores with high-efficiency cores on a single piece of silicon. Intel "Lakefield," headed toward mass-production within this year, is the first such heterogenous core.
Older reports throughout 2019-20 speculate "Meteor Lake" (known at the time only by its name), could come out at a time when Intel monetizes its "Golden Cove" high-performance CPU core. It's quite likely that like "Alder Lake," it could be a heterogenous chip targeting several client form-factors, mobile and desktop. The company could leverage its 7 nm process - claimed to rival TSMC 5 nm-class in transistor density - in turning up core-counts over "Alder Lake." We'll learn more about "Meteor Lake" as we crawl toward its 2022 launch window, if it still holds up.
Source:
Komachi Ensaka (Twitter)
Older reports throughout 2019-20 speculate "Meteor Lake" (known at the time only by its name), could come out at a time when Intel monetizes its "Golden Cove" high-performance CPU core. It's quite likely that like "Alder Lake," it could be a heterogenous chip targeting several client form-factors, mobile and desktop. The company could leverage its 7 nm process - claimed to rival TSMC 5 nm-class in transistor density - in turning up core-counts over "Alder Lake." We'll learn more about "Meteor Lake" as we crawl toward its 2022 launch window, if it still holds up.
47 Comments on Intel's First 7nm Client Microarchitecture is "Meteor Lake"
www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/research/quantum-computing.html
qutech.nl/
Its not fast though :D
Maybe that is Intel's big master plan. First they introduce 'bugs' and security issues with existing hardware, then they feed us bandaids that don't really fix much but do kill performance, and now they proceed with yet another stream of tiny improvements on the ever growing turd and every time just before the finish line, oops postponed or cancelled or 'roadmapped'. The end goal: we get so fed up with binary we will demand the ultra low performance of Quantum... :p
Generally, codenames themselves are not that important, the SKUs on sale will have different names anyway. If you want to follow the news on in-production and planned hardware, having some idea of the codenames just comes with the territory.
Some of the confusion in Intel lineup is because their server, desktop and mobile architectures do not align. The rest is due to all the 14nm updates they have been doing due to both 10nm being MIA as well as hardware fixes to security issues.
- Server: Skylake > Cascade Lake > Cooper Lake > Ice Lake > Sapphire Rapids > Granite Rapids > Diamond Rapids
- Desktop: Skylake > Kaby Lake > Coffee Lake > Coffee Lake Refresh > Comet Lake > Rocket Lake > Alder Lake > Meteor Lake
- Mobile: Skylake > Kaby Lake > Cannon Lake\Coffee Lake\Whiskey Lake > Ice Lake\Comet Lake > Tiger Lake\Rocket Lake > Alder Lake > Meteor Lake
The core architecture codenames have come into play for two reasons - all the 10nm drama, as well as Intel's apparent plan to do heterogeneous CPUs, where architecture of specific cores becomes important. Before this, code codename is/was usually the same as the CPU one.
- Mainline cores: Skylake > Palm Cove (in Cannon Lake) > Sunny Cove (in Ice Lake) > Willow Cove (Tiger Lake, Sapphire Rapids) > Golden Cove (probably Alder Lake and Granite Rapids), Ocean Cove (probably in Meteor Lake and Diamond Rapids).
There are other cores that are rumored to come into play soon, notably Tremont cores from Atom line into Alder Lake is the most known example.
Caring about Eagle Stream is a niche thing - it is a specific server platform that will be under Sapphire Rapids and Granite Rapids. If I remember correctly - this being a Whitley successor it should be the 2-socket platform.
5nm+ refers to TSMC's custom node for AMD in this context. I don't know where you got the idea to bring up GF.Im not so sure. Intel had to increase the pitch size to make their 10nm production viable. Besides it literally does not matter how dense Intel's node supposedly is if they can't produce it in volume. Something TSMC does not have a problem with. So even if Intel's 10nm is as dense as TSMC's 7nm the fact remains that TSMC has products in all segments: supercomputers, servers, desktop and mobile. Intel's 10nm is only in mobile thus far and even there it's nothing great.
Edit:
For comparison on TSMC side, Zen2 CCD is 3.9 billion transistors on 74mm^2 - roughly 52MTr/mm^2.I am willing to bet that is not a thing. This is just clickbait derived from lost in translation. Foundries do work with customers to help them best optimize the production but custom node is not what this "5nm+" is.
Coffee Lake is estimated to house 217 million 14nm transistors per core and Keller has stated that Ice Lake contains 300 million 10nm transistors.
www.pcgamesn.com/intel/next-gen-cpu-architecture-significantly-bigger-than-sunny-cove
Someone to measure the die size - pixels counting or real die size measurement.
Source: Google.
Renoir has 62 MT/mm2 and it is a high proformence part.
www.notebookcheck.net/TechInsight-dissects-and-analyzes-the-Cannon-Lake-Core-i3-8121U.313402.0.html
Intel 10 nm Core i3-8121U Brings 2.7x Transistor Density Over 14nm, Features 100.8 Million Transistors Per Square Millimeter
segmentnext.com/2018/06/29/intel-10-nm-core-i3-8121u-transistor/
The only known density 10nm Intel part is Lakefield and it is low power part. It's density is 49MT/mm2.
Lakefield -> 49MT/mm2
Renoir -> 62MT/mm2
A14/S865 -> Defenetly more than Renoir
Kirin 990 5G -> 90.9MT/mm2
www.anandtech.com/show/15099/the-huawei-mate-30-pro-review-top-hardware-without-google/2
10nm parts:
Ice Lake Core i7-1068G7
Cannon Lake Core i3-8121U
Lakefield Core i5-L15G7
segmentnext.com/2018/06/29/intel-10-nm-core-i3-8121u-transistor/
If not... DOA.
I guess we could say 10nm 2013 was the real meteor lake hehe, we are in 2020 and we are still waiting it hehe
you obviously have no idea what is Intel and how much resources it has.
Intel Rocket Lake (H5 LGA 1200 socket PCIe 4.0 "8 Cores"
10nm+++
Intel Alder Lake (H6 LGA 1700 socket PCIe 4.0 "16 Cores" big.Little
7nm+
Intel Meteor Lake (H6 LGA 1700 socket PCIe 5.0
Intel H6 LGA 1700 socket will have PCIe 5.0 ready DDR5 and USB-4 and all the other goodies.... Like WiFi-6E 5G ........
Intel Meteor Lake will double Sky Lake IPC performance.