Intel in its 2024 International CES presentation, unveiled its two new upcoming client microarchitectures, "Arrow Lake" and "Lunar Lake." Michelle Johnston Holthaus, EVP and GM of Intel's client computing group (CCG), in her keynote address, held up a next-generation Core Ultra "Lunar Lake" chip. This is the Lunar Lake-MX package, with MOP (memory on package). You have a Foveros base tile resembling "Meteor Lake," with on-package LPDDR5x memory stacks. With "Lunar Lake," Intel is reorganizing components across its various Foveros tiles—the Compute and Graphics tiles are combined into a single tile built on an Intel foundry node that's possibly the Intel 20A (we have no confirmation); and a smaller SoC tile that has all of the components of the current "Meteor Lake" SoC tile, and is possibly built on a TSMC node, such as N3.

"Lunar Lake" will pick up the mantle from "Meteor Lake" in the U-segment and H-segment (that's ultraportables, and thin-and-light), when it comes out later this year (we predict in the second half of 2024), with Core Ultra 2-series branding. Intel also referenced "Arrow Lake," which could finally bring light to the sluggish pace of development in its desktop segment. When it comes out later this year, "Arrow Lake" will debut Socket LGA1851, "Arrow Lake" will bring the AI Boost NPU to the desktop, along with Arc Xe-LPG integrated graphics. The biggest upgrade of course will be its new Compute tile, with its "Lion Cove" P-cores, and "Skymont" E-cores, that possibly offer a large IPC uplift over the current combination of "Raptor Cove" and "Gracemont" cores on the "Raptor Lake" silicon. It's also possible that Intel will try to bring "Meteor Lake" with its 6P+8E Compute tile, Xe-LPG iGPU, and NPU, to the LGA1851 socket, as part of some mid-range processor models. 2024 will see a Intel desktop processor based on a new architecture, which is the big takeaway here.

Noctua today introduced its new NM-M1 enthusiast-grade multi-socket mounting kits. Available for Noctua coolers with 83 and 78 mm mounting pitch, the NM-M1-MP83 and NM-M1-MP78 represent an ideal upgrade for users who want to migrate their Noctua CPU coolers to the new, Torx based SecuFirm2+ standard or to the latest sockets that their cooler did not yet support at the time of purchase. On AMD AM5, the offset mounting option can significantly improve performance with typical reductions in CPU temperatures of 1-3°C.

"The mounting system might seem like a sideshow when looking at a CPU cooler as a whole, yet in fact, it's one of the key factors not only for the customer's overall user experience but also for product safety and performance - poor contact pressure or contact quality can easily ruin your results even if the heatsink as such is working great", explains Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "At Noctua, we have always taken pride in refining our mounting systems unremittingly, and the NM-M1 kits are a testament to this strive: integrating the latest SecuFirm2+ standard as well as our offset mounting option for improved performance on AMD AM5, they keep raising the bar."

Azza has introduced its new Cube 240 and Cube 360 liquid AIO coolers, compatible with Intel's upcoming LGA1851 socket for Arrow Lake processors. The new LGA1851 socket offers more contact pins than the previous LGA1700 socket, but it maintains the same dimensions and mounting spacing, allowing many existing coolers to remain compatibility. As we see with the latest Reddit post of the Azza Cube 360 installation manual, the LGA1851 socket will retain cooler compatibility with the current LGA1700 socket. For users planning to upgrade to the upcoming Arrow Lake platform, the cooler installation will be the least of their worries if their mounting brackets are compatible.

However, one notable change with LGA1851 is the higher maximum dynamic pressure, signifying increased mounting pressure from CPU coolers. But that only sometimes leads to new mounting mechanisms for coolers. In addition to Azza, Noctua's coolers, like NH-U12, have also confirmed signs of Arrow Lake support, as you can see here.

Intel's next generation Core "Meteor Lake" processor was confirmed by ComputerBase.de to not release on the desktop platform. The processor will not make it to a socketed desktop package such as the upcoming LGA1851. It will see a mobile-only (notebook and tablets only) launch, with select processor models based on the mobile BGA package being made available to PC OEMs to build all-in-one desktops and mini PCs as non-socketed processors.

The desktop platform presence of "Meteor Lake" has been surrounded by some controversy, owing mainly to its maximum CPU core count of 6P+16E, which is bound to fall short of the current 8P+16E, and AMD's 16P. A slide released by Intel added to the confusion, which indicated that "Meteor Lake" has a thermal range of 5 W to 125 W, with the latter being typically associated with the processor base power values of desktop Core K-series processors.

Intel's upcoming desktop platform based on Socket LGA1851 will retire support for the DDR4 memory standard. The socket will only support DDR5. With this, Intel would have gracefully transitioned the market from DDR4 to DDR5, with its current Socket LGA1700 that enables both memory stardards, having supported three generations of Core processors (12th thru 14th). Leaf Hobby, a reliable source with Intel leaks, says that LGA1851 will remain Intel's desktop platform till 2026.

LGA1851 is expected to debut with the company's Core desktop processor generation that succeeds 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh." The socket itself has the same dimensions as LGA1700, and is expected to be cooler-compatible with the older socket. The socket will feature pins for up to 32 PCIe lanes—16 toward PEG, 8 toward DMI chipset bus, and two sets of 4 lanes toward CPU-attached NVMe storage. From these, the 16 PEG lanes, and one set of 4 lanes are expected to be Gen 5, while the chipset bus is expected to remain DMI Gen 4 x8, and the second CPU-attached NVMe slot is expected to be Gen 4. The socket could also feature wiring for updated display I/O, as Intel's next-gen processors are expected to introduce updates to the iGPU.

Late last year, it was reported that Intel is skipping its upcoming "Meteor Lake" microarchitecture for the desktop platform, giving it a mobile-platform debut in late-2023, with "Arrow Lake" following on in 2024, which would address both platforms. In the interim, Intel was expected to release a "Raptor Lake Refresh" architecture for desktop in 2023. It turns out now, that both the "Raptor Lake Refresh" and "Meteor Lake" architectures are coming to desktop—we just don't know when.

Apparently, Intel will brazen it out against AMD with a maximum CPU core-count of just 6 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores possible for "Meteor Lake." It's just that both the P-cores and a E-cores get an IPC uplift with "Meteor Lake." The processor features up to six "Redwood Cove" P-cores with an IPC uplift over the current "Raptor Cove" cores; and introduce the new "Crestmont" E-cores. A lot will depend on the IPC uplift of the latter. Leaf_hobby, a reliable source with Intel leaks on social media, has some interesting details on the I/O capabilities of "Meteor Lake" on the desktop platform.

Intel's 2023 roadmap for the desktop processor segment sees the company flesh out its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" desktop family with 65 W (locked) SKUs, and the new i9-13900KS flagship; followed by a new lineup of processors under the "Raptor Lake Refresh" family, due for Q3-2023, with no mentions of a desktop "Meteor Lake" processor in the year. It turns out that "Raptor Lake Refresh" is being designed to fill in for these (i.e. there won't be any "Meteor Lake" desktop chips). This, according to OneRaichu, a reliable source with Intel leaks.

"Meteor Lake" is Intel's first client processor to fully incorporate the company's IDM 2.0 product development strategy of disintegrating the processor into multiple chiplets built on various foundry nodes based on design needs; and combining them onto a single package with a high-performance interconnect. "Meteor Lake" has just one problem and that is CPU core-counts, with rumors pointing to 6P+16E (6 performance cores + 16 efficiency cores) being the maximum core-count possible, something Intel probably feels won't be competitive in the desktop segment against AMD, which will probably have a lineup of "Zen 4" X3D processors out by Q3-2023, with up to 16 P-cores. The company will, however, give "Meteor Lake" a sizable launch in the various mobile segments.

Intel as part of its development process with industry partners and OEMs, allegedly released technical documents in a bare URL that's worded to confirm that its next desktop processor socket will in fact be the LGA1851. We've had some idea since June 2021 that LGA1851 will succeed LGA1700, but this can be taken as a confirmation. Although with a higher pin-count, the LGA1851 package will be physically of an identical size to LGA1700, with mostly identical socket mechanism, so the new socket could maintain cooler compatibility with its predecessor. The additional 151 pins come from shrinking the "courtyard" (the region of the land grid in the center that lacks pins and instead has some electrical ancillaries).

The new Socket LGA1851 platform is expected to power Intel's "Meteor Lake-S" and "Arrow Lake-S" microarchitectures. Whether "Meteor Lake-S" gets the 14th Gen Core branding is a whole different question. Leaked benchmarks suggest that 2023 will be a rather slow year from Intel in the area of desktop processors, and that toward Q3-2023, the company will release the so-called "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors. These chips are likely built on the same LGA1700 package, and as we've seen from "Coffee Lake Refresh," could warrant a new generational branding to 14th Gen Core (as CFL Refresh formed the 9th Gen Core). Intel could increase clock-speeds, E-core counts, and other process/packaging-level innovations to segment these chips apart from existing 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake." LGA1851 processors like "Meteor Lake" could debut chiplets for Intel, as these have their CPU cores, iGPU, memory-controllers, and uncore components, spread apart on chiplets built on various foundry nodes.

Keeping up with the cadence of two generations of desktop processors per socket, Intel will turn the page of the current LGA1700, with the introduction of the new Socket LGA1851. The processor package will likely have the same dimensions as LGA1700, and the two sockets may share cooler compatibility. The first processor microarchitecture to debut on LGA1851 will be the 14th Gen Core "Meteor Lake-S." These chips will feature a generationally lower CPU core-count compared to "Raptor Lake," but significantly bump the IPC on both the P-cores and E-cores.

"Raptor Lake" is Intel's final monolithic silicon client processor before the company pivots to chiplets built on various foundry nodes, as part of its IDM 2.0 strategy. The client-desktop version of "Meteor Lake," dubbed "Meteor Lake-S," will have a maximum CPU core configuration of 6P+16E (that's 6 performance cores with 16 efficiency cores). The chip has 6 "Redwood Cove" P-cores, and 16 "Crestmont" E-cores. Both of these are expected to receive IPC uplifts, such that the processor will end up faster (and hopefully more efficient) than the top "Raptor Lake-S" part. Particularly, it should be able to overcome the deficit of 2 P-cores.

Intel's next-generation desktop processor socket will be the LGA1851. Leaked documents point to the next-generation socket being of identical dimensions to the current LGA1700, despite the higher pin-count, which could indicate cooler compatibility between the two sockets, much in the same way as the LGA1200 retained cooler-compatibility with prior Intel sockets tracing all the way back to the LGA1156. The current LGA1700 will service only two generations of Intel Core, the 12th Generation "Alder Lake," and the next-gen "Raptor Lake" due for later this year. "Raptor Lake" will be Intel's last desktop processor built on a monolithic silicon, as the company transitions to multi-chip modules.

Intel Socket LGA1851 will debut with the 14th Gen Core "Meteor Lake" processors due for late-2023 or 2024; and will hold out until the 15th Gen "Arrow Lake." Since "Meteor Lake" is a 3D-stacked MCM with a base tile stacked below logic tiles; the company is making adjustments to the IHS thickness to end up with an identical package thickness to the LGA1700, which would be key to cooler-compatibility, besides the socket's physical dimensions. Intel probably added pin-count to the LGA1851 by eating into the "courtyard" (the central gap in the land-grid), because the company states that the pin-pitch hasn't changed from LGA1700.