Thanks to the 3D renders and technical drawings obtained by Igor's Lab, we have insights into the structure of Intel's next-generation LGA-1851 socket for Arrow Lake processors. Scheduled to arrive in mid-2024, the LGA-1851 socket was originally intended for Meteor Lake-S desktop processors. However, the socket is now awaiting Arrow Lake since Meteor Lake is now a mobile-only processor generation. The first notable thing about LGA-1851 is that it will directly connect a dedicated PCIe 5.0 x4 interface to the CPU, besides the x16 lanes going to the GPU. This results in native support for high-speed PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs that can achieve speeds of over 12 GB/s in both read and write workloads.

Intel Arrow Lake-S will be available with eight P-cores and 16 E-cores in SKUs with different combinations of the two. The accompanying 800 series chipset includes Z890, B860, and H810 models, with an evident absence of H870 SKU. There will be W880 and Q870 workstation-grade chipsets as well. It is worth pointing out that Arrow Lake will enable DRAM capacities of up to 48 GB per DIMM at 6400 MT/s. We expect to hear more about Arrow Lake-S as we near the 2024 launch date and we get to see the Intel 20A node being used in client products. Below, you can see the technical drawings of the Independent Loading Mechanism (ILM) and chipset 3D models.

The fate of Intel's Meteor Lake-S desktop CPU lineup has been the topic of much debate since the end of last year - at the time, industry tipsters proposed that part of the product range had been disposed of entirely, but several leaks throughout the course of 2023 have indicated that MTL-S processors were on-track for a launch later in the year - albeit restricted to i3 and i5 offerings. An Intel employee has also confirmed that a new SKU naming system will be implemented as part of the upcoming Meteor Lake lineup - although he did not clarify whether this would encompass both mobile and desktop variants.

An alleged Intel client CPU roadmap has made its way onto the internet, and tipsters think that the information on hand shows that Team Blue has pulled the plug on its Meteor Lake-S (6 Performance and 8 Efficiency cores) desktop processors. The presentation slide was likely authored earlier this month - so these developments are relatively fresh, with provisions for Core S, H, PX, M, U & N series. The heavily redacted infographic maps out product release windows going as far forward as Q4 2026. OneRaichu posits that an Arrow Lake-S (6P + 8E) CPU lineup will replace MTL-S. It is possible that Intel's Raptor Lake-S refresh could serve as an interim release this year, since the Arrow Lake generation is expected to arrive in 2024.

The Linux 6.3 Kernel has been patched and a couple of developer notes indicate that support for Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake-S Desktop CPU lineup has been added. The subject matter of this memo is "Add support for Meteor Lake-S SPI serial flash," and the driver list of supported devices has been updated with Meteor Lake-S PCI IDs. Intel is ramping up for the launch of its 14th generation processors, scheduled for a possible second half of 2023 release window, and is ready to roll out some new product naming spiel at the same time.

A "P" type 14th generation range is also discussed in the patch notes: "Intel Meteor Lake-S has the same SPI serial flash controller as Meteor Lake-P. Add Meteor Lake-S PCI ID to the driver list of supported devices." Meteor Lake-P likely refers to mobile variants, with a lot of previously leaked information providing an in-depth look at Intel's "Tile" chip design. Rumors of the desktop variants getting canned have persisted (in 2022 and early 2023) due to a lack of insider info, but last month it emerged that the Meteor Lake-S family was alive and well to some degree - Intel has restricted the product range with offerings of budget "i3" and mid-range "i5" SKUs only. Who knows what sort of branding/naming scheme they have in mind to distinguish between desktop and portable processors.