Thursday, September 7th 2023
Intel's Meteor Lake CPU Breaks Ground with On-Package LPDDR5X Memory Integration
During a recent demonstration, Intel showcased its cutting-edge packaging technologies, EMIB (embedded multi-die interconnect bridge) and Foveros, unveiling the highly-anticipated Meteor Lake processor with integrated LPDDR5X memory. This move appears to align with Apple's successful integration of LPDDR memory into its M1 and M2 chip packages. At the heart of Intel's presentation was the quad-tile Meteor Lake CPU, leveraging Foveros packaging for its chiplets and boasting 16 GB of Samsung's LPDDR5X-7500 memory. Although the specific CPU configuration remains undisclosed, the 16 GB of integrated memory delivers a remarkable peak bandwidth of 120 GB/s, outperforming traditional memory subsystems using DDR5-5200 or LPDDR5-6400.
Nevertheless, this approach comes with trade-offs, such as the potential for system-wide failure if a memory chip malfunctions, limited upgradeability in soldered-down configurations, and the need for more advanced cooling solutions to manage CPU and memory heat. While Apple pioneered on-package LPDDR memory integration in client CPUs, Intel has a history of using package-on-package DRAM with its Atom-branded CPUs for tablets and ultrathin laptops. While this approach simplifies manufacturing, enabling slimmer notebook designs, it curtails configuration flexibility. We are yet to see if big laptop makers such as Dell, HP, and Asus, take on this design in the coming months.
Sources:
Intel, via Tom's Hardware
Nevertheless, this approach comes with trade-offs, such as the potential for system-wide failure if a memory chip malfunctions, limited upgradeability in soldered-down configurations, and the need for more advanced cooling solutions to manage CPU and memory heat. While Apple pioneered on-package LPDDR memory integration in client CPUs, Intel has a history of using package-on-package DRAM with its Atom-branded CPUs for tablets and ultrathin laptops. While this approach simplifies manufacturing, enabling slimmer notebook designs, it curtails configuration flexibility. We are yet to see if big laptop makers such as Dell, HP, and Asus, take on this design in the coming months.
55 Comments on Intel's Meteor Lake CPU Breaks Ground with On-Package LPDDR5X Memory Integration
Current 96 EU iris is comparable to radeon vega 7 graphics in the 5000 series APUS.
A larger 128eu second gen design may encroach on 780m performance, and people absolutely ARE paying games on that.
When is the release date?
Until Intel and AMD get their priorities straight and start bringing decent iGPUs to all laptop market segments, not just the most expensive models, their high-powered iGPUs may as well not exist.
They're not doing the 'same tasks' even though it may appear that way. You're comparing tasks you can do on your M1 to the same thing on your wintel. There are so many things that 3 year old x86 machine can run that are just not even available for the M1.
My iPad gets much better efficiency than my desktop doing tasks that the iPad can do. But I'm not running a dev postgres server, an interface engine, on it and pushing images into the cloud, or even any kind of serious office apps/data tools while also being to interface with legacy business systems.
Current gen Intel i9/i7 have 96EU, i5 have 80EU and i3 have 64EU.
Macs are expensive yes, but so are some laptops, like gaming ROG or Alienware or Razer stuff. Also, many Windows laptops have soldered RAM and SSD storage, so it is not unique to the Macintosh. Macbooks used to be upgradable (RAM and storage), but that was in the Steve Jobs days.
Apple Silicon is super power efficient for the performance you get in return. When my macbook is sitting idle or I'm just browsing the web or watching a video or movie, it consumes just 6W! And no more than 20-25W under load. I never hear the fan ever. I can't say the same about my Windows-based laptop for work, which sounds like a jet engine from time to time, especially during video calls on zoom or Teams.
And your complaint about soldered SSD storage is true, but one way around that is to add thunderbolt-based NVME storage. With how cheap SSDs are these days, and the declining cost of thunderbolt/usb4 enclosures, it is easy to add terabytes of storage for far less than $500. You can pay $200 to $250 tops for 2TB of thunderbolt-based storage ($100 for the nvme enclosure, and $100 to $150 for the 2TB drive if based on pcie4, and even cheaper if based on PCIe3).
Yes thunderbolt 3/4 are based on PCIe3x4 with a real-world top speed of 2800 MB/sec. But that is more than fast enough as compared to the astronomical cost of adding the same amount of internal storage. Finally, with non-intel USB4 controllers now finally coming to market, USB4 NVME enclosures such as the Zike Drive (which uses AsMedia's USB4 controller) top out at around 3800 MB/sec. Not bad at all.
AMD also has their low range stuff. The good parts are Phoenix-based R9/R7/R5 and things get messy elsewhere.
In Ryzen3 and some Ryzen 5 you can get Radeon 610M (2CU RDNA2), 6CU Vega, Radeon 660M (4CU RDNA2), Radeon 740M (4CU RDNA3).
And there is also the entire high-end Dragon Range that comes with 610M on IO Die (on R9/R7/R5).This is a discussion for some other topic but I wholeheartedly disagree. x86 (with its current extensions) is a remarkable stable and complete ISA, especially when compared to ARM. ARM is getting there but note quite yet and was a hot mess not so long ago. Plus all the proprietary concerns even with independent ARM and all that. The vision of software being actively (re)developed or at least supported for newer platform/ISA specific versions is nice and cute... but not rooted in reality.
When I'm idle on my 6900HS G14 I'm also at 6W and 8-9W in video playback and office tasks. And that's with a SO-DIMM slot, dGPU (albeit MUXed) and 144Hz screen at high brightness driving up the power.
Still, not denying M1 and M2's merits, they are definitely efficient in day to day tasks.80/96EU Iris is fine, as long as Vega 8 is serviceable then Iris is too. But like with 680M/780M you need high freq LPDDR5 to maximize performance and it's less common to find Intel laptops with that config.
my old laptops, have screws to remove and easy access for drive swap and ram swap.
My friends new slim laptop is like opening a steam deck having to pry the covers off, (I had to remove the keyboard to access his SSD) and navigate to the components. Also his battery doesnt just detach externally like mine either, internal now.
I still value being able to swap a SSD and stuff like that. But for most people, a laptop or ultrabook is just a fashion accessory. They wouldn't be able to tell a M.2 SSD from a RAM stick anyway.
Aren't these Broadwell's "spiritual successors", APUs with unified iGPU+CPU LLC and a larger iGPU with the full Alchemist instruction set?