In a bid to prepare its ISV ecosystem for emerging technologies with future processor microarchitectures, Intel periodically releases instruction-set reference guides. The latest of these was leaked to the web, making their first references to the upcoming "Arrow Lake" and "Lunar Lake" client processor microarchitectures. From the looks of it, Intel is planning a massive push into the client AI acceleration space, starting with the upcoming "Meteor Lake" architecture that debuts later this year. The processor is expected to feature hardware acceleration for AI, with the new AI Boost feature.

The company could build on AI Boost with even more capabilities in the subsequent "Arrow Lake" and "Lunar Lake" microarchitectures. Among the instruction sets relevant to AI deep-learning neural net building and training, are AVX VNNI with INT8, AVX VNNI with INT16, AVX-IFMA, and AVX-NE Convert. There are several new security-relevant instructions, including SHA512, SM3, and SM4. "Lunar Lake" will introduce TSE-PBNDKB (total storage encryption). The ISA Reference Guide can be accessed here.

Intel today announced its first major branding change for its client-segment Core desktop and mobile processor family in over 15 years (since the introduction of the very first Core "Nehalem"). "Core" still remains Intel's main client-segment processor brand, but the way the company draws its processor model numbers, is being significantly changed. The company is also introducing the Core Ultra brand of premium processors. The new nomenclature also sees Intel discontinue the use of "generations" within the SKU name.

The current Intel naming scheme sees the company mention processor generation before the main brand Core. For example, the 13th Gen Core is Intel's current line of client-segment products. Right next to Core, Intel places the brand extension "i" followed by the product tiering number 3, 5, 7, or 9. The product model number follows, and even this model number tends to begin with the processor generation. For example, the "i9-13900" already conveys that it is a processor from Intel's 13th Gen Core family. This is where Intel is making its two main changes.

A few weeks ago, we spotted an Intel Core Ultra 7 1003H Meteor Lake-P processor in the wild, running a PugetBench set of benchmarks. Today, we are in luck as there is another Meteor Lake-P processor running in the wild, spotted by @InstLatX64 on Twitter. Called Intel Core Ultra 7 1002H, the CPU represents a similar SKU to the previously discovered 1003. Also, having 16 cores in total, they are split into two categories: 6 Performance cores, and ten Efficient cores, two of which are on the SoC die, divided from the remaining eight on the compute die. Interestingly, only P-cores feature 2-way hyperthreaded, so 12 threads from P-cores and ten threads from E-cores combine into 22 threads.

What we don't know is the frequency of this chip and the position it plays in the Meteor Lake-P family of processors. The screenshot states a potential base clock of 3000 MHz; however, it could be an early engineering sample chip, so we have to wait for the final design. With 1003H having exactly the same core/thread number, we expect that the newly discovered 1002H has potentially lower clocks and TDP to match.

Intel is about to turn chipmaking upside down with PowerVia, a new approach to delivering power that required a radical rethink to both how chips are made and how they are tested. For all the modern history of computer chips, they've been built like pizzas—from the bottom up, in layers. In the case of chips, you start with the tiniest features, the transistors, and then you build up increasingly less-tiny layers of wires that connect the transistors and different parts of the chip (these are called interconnects). Included among those top layers are the wires that bring in the power that makes the chip go.

When the chip is done, you flip it over, enclose it in packaging that provides connections to the outer world, and you're ready to put it in a computer. Unfortunately, this approach is running into problems. As they get smaller and denser, the layers that share interconnects and power connections have become an increasingly chaotic web that hinders the overall performance of each chip. Once an afterthought, "now they have a huge impact," says Ben Sell, vice president of Technology Development at Intel and part of the team that brought PowerVia to fruition. In short, power and signals fade, requiring workarounds or simply dumping more power in.

An Ebay merchant has made a very bold and brave maneuver within the last day or two - notorious hardware tipster harukaze5719 pointed out the seller's listing of an unreleased Intel 14th generation processor earlier today. The OneClickWarehouse store (established back in 2005) operates out of Ogden, Utah and seems to be a reasonably legit outfit thanks to an overall 99.6% positive feedback rating, despite their selling of apparently pre-release semiconductor tech. The item in question is titled "Meteor Lake P 6C+8A+GT2 X7 4CAB4V B A Mobility CPU14th Gen," with two examples being available for sale (at the time of writing) at $999 a pop.

This Meteor Lake CPU appears to be a mobile (MTL-P) variant, the "P" designation apparently points to utilization in ultra-thin and lightweight laptops. The Ebay-sourced info indicates a presence of six performance cores and eight efficiency cores which aligns with previously leaked details about the upcoming SKU lineup. Two low-powered E-cores sit within its SoC tile (aka chiplet), resulting in a total of 16 cores (22-threads). Several hardware news outlets in attendance at Computex 2023 have reported on an Intel demonstration unit - this laptop sports a Meteor Lake P-series processor with a similar core configuration to the ones listed for sale by OneClickWarehouse.

Microsoft and Intel are working together to drive the development of artificial intelligence (AI) on personal computing (PC). And at Microsoft's Build 2023 conference, Intel and Microsoft are previewing the AI-enabled capabilities of Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake client PC processors. Utilizing Meteor Lake processors' unique disaggregated architecture, Intel and Microsoft are enabling new AI-powered features for PC users - including new multimedia features like auto reframe and scene edit detection in Adobe Premiere Pro and more effective machine learning.

Meteor Lake marks a significant milestone in the evolution not just in personal computing, but also in how we interact with technology. It starts with the "chiplet" system-on-chip (SoC) design that allows Intel to deliver advanced intellectual properties (IPs) and leading-edge processes to optimize segment-relevant performance and lower power. This has enabled Meteor Lake to be the first PC platform from Intel featuring a built-in neural VPU, a dedicated AI engine integrated directly on the SoC to power efficiently run AI models. With the new neural VPU combined with powerful AI accelerators on the CPU and GPU, which Intel has been supporting for several generations, Meteor Lake will play a crucial role in shaping the future of innovation and PC experiences for consumers and businesses across industries.

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.

Intel Graphics employees inadvertently revealed that the company's Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture is being designed for the 4 nm silicon fabrication node, which would give Intel's GPU designers a leap in transistor density and power headroom, given that TSMC 4 nm is an EUV node compared to the current 6 nm DUV node the company builds its Arc "Alchemist" GPUs on. The leak also seems to confirm that its succeeding "Celestial" graphics architecture is being designed for 3 nm. An enthusiast named gamma0burst sifted through public profiles of several Intel employees, and scored these details in their professional profile pages.

We are almost certain that Xe2 "Battlemage" is going to be built on the TSMC 4 nm node, and to a slightly lesser degree, about Xe3 "Celestial" being designed for TSMC's 3 nm N3X node. Intel roadmaps pin the debut of "Battlemage" to a 2023-2024 timeline, although this could also be a reference to the iGPU of the upcoming Core "Meteor Lake" processors that debut in the second half of 2023. Intel is highly likely to deliver "Meteor Lake" within its 2H-2023 timeline, which would mean that the mention of "2024" in the graphics technology roadmap could mean that discrete GPUs based on "Battlemage" only arrive next year.

Intel has made it official that its upcoming Meteor Lake CPU lineup will proudly sport a new branding scheme - as reported on TPU much earlier today, rumors indicated that Intel would be rolling out "Core Ultra" brand extensions across a range of SKUs. The "i" in some model identifiers such as i3, i5, i7, and i9 are now confirmed to be (in part) replaced with "Ultra" - an Ashes of the Singularity benchmark leak identified a CPU called "Core Ultra 5 1003H" early on last week, and that information soon spread across many online hardware news outlets and communities.

Bernard Fernandes, director of global communications at Intel Corp. today addressed the rumors and leaks via Twitter and confirms that a new branding scheme is incoming: "Yes, we are making brand changes as we're at an inflection point in our client roadmap in preparation for the upcoming launch of our Meteor Lake processors. We will provide more details regarding these exciting changes in the coming weeks!" He makes sure to not directly mention the "Ultra Core" branding in his tweet, but it is heavily implied that he's referring to the discardation and eventual replacement of Intel's classic "i" labelling system.

Intel is planning a major change in its client processor brand extensions with its next-generation mobile processors codenamed "Meteor Lake." The company is working to introduce the new Core Ultra brand extensions, where "Ultra" replaces the "i" in extensions such as i3, i5, i7, and i9 in some processor models. An example of such a brand extension would be the "Core Ultra 5 1003H." Ashes of the Singularity benchmark leaks of the processors surfaced on social media.

The benchmark also detects 128 EU (1,024 unified shaders) for the iGPU powering "Meteor Lake." If true, this iGPU could offer performance that's in the league of an Arc A380 discrete GPU, with some performance lost to the shared memory setup compared to the A380 with its dedicated graphics memory. The iGPU clock speed is detected to be 2.10 GHz, and having 4 MB of L2 cache, the last-level cache local to the Graphics Tile. The detection string for the iGPU as reported by its OpenCL ICD reads "Intel(R) Graphics i gfx-driver-ci-master-13736 DCH RI (1024S 128C SM3.0 2.1GHz, 4MB L2, 12.7GB)."

Intel's next-generation Core "Meteor Lake" processor is now ramping for mass-production, with product launches expected in the second half of 2023, the company announced in its Q1-2023 Financial Results release. "Meteor Lake" will see Intel debut its next-generation foundry node, the Intel 4. The company is expected to use this node for the Compute Tile of the "Meteor Lake" processor, the piece of silicon that has the CPU cores. Intel 4 is said to offer transistor-density and performance/Watt comparable to TSMC's N5-series and N4-series foundry nodes. In the same release, Intel stated that development of its future foundry nodes, Intel 3, Intel 20A, and Intel 18A, are on track. In its top configuration, "Meteor Lake" is expected to feature a CPU core configuration of 6P+16E, and we are hearing that it will see a more limited release in the desktop segment, in that the processor will only come in Core i3 and Core i5 brand extensions, not Core i7 or Core i9 (which would be taken up by "Arrow Lake," with its higher P-core count). "Meteor Lake" will span a variety of mobile segments from 7 W ultraportables, to 45 W mainstream notebooks, and possibly even 55 W gaming notebooks.

Intel Corporation today reported first-quarter 2023 financial results. "We delivered solid first-quarter results, representing steady progress with our transformation," said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. "We hit key execution milestones in our data center roadmap and demonstrated the health of the process technology underpinning it. While we remain cautious on the macroeconomic outlook, we are focused on what we can control as we deliver on IDM 2.0: driving consistent execution across process and product roadmaps and advancing our foundry business to best position us to capitalize on the $1 trillion market opportunity ahead."

David Zinsner, Intel CFO, said, "We exceeded our first-quarter expectations on the top and bottom line, and continued to be disciplined on expense management as part of our commitment to drive efficiencies and cost savings. At the same time, we are prioritizing the investments needed to advance our strategy and establish an internal foundry model, one of the most consequential steps we are taking to deliver on IDM 2.0."

Following on from yesterday's news of Meteor Lake's "Adamantine" L4 cache another leaky bit of information has popped up. A tipster on Twitter, Bionic_squash, has uploaded a slide from a supposedly official Intel presentation document, and it shows a small selection of Meteor Lake-S and Arrow Lake-S desktop CPUs, as well as the refreshed Raptor Lake-S series. The majority of recent leaks have pointed to laptop variants of Intel's fourteenth generation Core lineup, and not much has emerged about a desktop-dedicated range in a while - prompting further murmurs about Team Blue canning that side of things. The Meteor Lake-S family is still in the works according to the leaked chart and industry experts reckon that a product launch is due later in the year.

By looking closely at the chart, it shows that the Meteor Lake-S desktop processors are limited to 35 and 65 W TDPs, meaning that Core i3 and i5 lines are the only offerings within the 14th generation desktop lineup. Performance enthusiasts will need to look at the 15th gen Arrow Lake-S lineup - where the big i7 and i9 CPUs (up to 125 W) sit, or the refreshed Raptor Lake lineup which also offers a wide range of options - from i3 up to i9. Industry experts are a bit puzzled about Meteor Lake's prospects in the desktop processor sector - when considering a (speculated) skew to more entry-level and mid-range minded customers. Will Intel lose out by not offering more powerful variants, or are they working on a refreshed 14th generation product lineup for 2025?

We've known from a recent report that "Meteor Lake" introduces an L4 cache, and now we are learning that it is codenamed "Adamantine," and serves functions resembling that of a passive interposer. Intel's upcoming "Meteor Lake" microarchitecture will power the company's first disaggregated processor for the client segment.

A disaggregated processor is different from an MCM (such as "Clarkdale"), since finer components that make up the processor that otherwise can't exist on their own packages without extreme latency, are made to share a single package via a high-speed interconnect. This disaggregation is purely for economic reasons, so the company needn't use the latest (and most expensive) foundry node for the entire processor, but ration it to the specific components that benefit the most from it. Unlike AMD client processors that disaggregate the CPU cores and the remaining processor I/O into two kinds of chiplets, Intel "Meteor Lake" will see the breaking up of not just CPU cores (compute tile), but also the iGPU on its own tile, besides the platform I/O on separate tiles still.

In the latest Linux Kernel patches, Intel engineers are submitting initial support for Meteor Lake processor generation, with some interesting potential features. In a patch submitted yesterday, the Intel engineer noted, "On MTL, GT can no longer allocate on LLC - only the CPU can. This, along with the addition of support for ADM/L4 cache, calls a MOCS/PAT table update." What this translates to is that starting from Meteor Lake, the integrated graphics can no longer allocate on the last-level cache (LLC), the highest numbered cache accessed by the cores before fetching from memory. Instead, only the CPU cores can allocate to it. Even more interesting is the mention of the Meteor Lake platform's level 4 (L4) cache. For the first time since Haswell and Broadwell, Intel may be planning to bring back the L4 cache and integrate it into the CPU.

Usually, modern processors use L1, L2, and L3 caches where the L1 version is the fastest and smallest, while the others are larger but slower. The inclusion of L4 caches often is unnecessary, as this type of cache can consume a big area on the processor die while bringing little benefit, translating to the cost of manufacturing drastically soaring. However, with Meteor Lake and its multi-die tile design, we wonder where the L4 cache will end up. We could see integration into the base tile, which holds the compute cores and essential compute elements. This makes the most sense since the logic needs access to fast memory, and L4 could improve the performance in specific applications.

The Meteor Lake codename has been linked to the fourteenth generation of Intel's Core lineup for a while, following several significant leaks in 2022 and 2023. According to newly unearthed internal documentation and benchmark data, Intel has confirmed that the Meteor Lake family of CPUs will form its upcoming 14th Gen Core lineup - with laptop variations expected to arrive mid-2023 and heavily speculated desktop units in the fourth quarter, although a middle of the year refresh of Raptor Lake could push the entire Meteor Lake range's release window into 2024.

Meteor Lake is anticipated to be Intel's debuting of a "disaggregated" design - the most advanced laptop CPU variant features a top-of-the-line 6P+8E core configuration. Intel is solely responsible for fabrication of an IOE (I/O) tile (the company's own term for a chiplet) with PCIe 5.0 plus Thunderbolt 4, as well as an SoC tile. The GPU part of the design is rumored to be based on their own Arc Alchemist architecture, and TSMC has been contracted to manufacture this graphics tile - not a big surprise since Intel has also placed substantial manufacturing orders for discrete Arc cards with the Taiwanese foundry.

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 Corporation today announced that its board of directors has reset its dividend policy, reducing the quarterly dividend to $0.125 per share (or $0.50 annually) on the company's common stock. The dividend will be payable on June 1, 2023, to stockholders of record on May 7, 2023. Intel also reaffirmed its first-quarter 2023 business outlook provided at its most recent earnings call, including revenue of between $10.5 billion and $11.5 billion; gross margin of 34.1% on a GAAP basis and 39% on a non-GAAP basis; tax rate of (84%) on a GAAP basis and 13% on a non-GAAP basis; and earnings per share of $(0.80) on a GAAP basis and $(0.15) on a non-GAAP basis.

The decision to decrease the quarterly dividend reflects the board's deliberate approach to capital allocation and is designed to best position the company to create long-term value. The improved financial flexibility will support the critical investments needed to execute Intel's transformation during this period of macroeconomic uncertainty. Since first initiated in 1992, Intel's dividend has delivered more than $80 billion in cash returns to the company's stockholders, and the board is committed to maintaining a competitive dividend.

Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake processor family is supposedly looking good with the new performance/efficiency targets. According to the @OneRaichu Twitter account, we have a potential performance estimate for the upcoming SKUs. As the latest information notes, Intel's 14th-generation Meteor Lake will feature around a 50% increase in efficiency compared to the 13th-generation Raptor Lake designs. This means that the processor can use half the power at the same performance target at Raptor Lake, increasing efficiency. Of course, the design also offers some performance improvements besides efficiency that are significant and are yet to be shown. The new Redwood Cove P-cores will be combined with the new Crestmont E-cores for maximum performance inside U/P/H configurations with 15-45 Watt power envelopes.

For integrated graphics, the source notes that Meteor Lake offers twice the performance of iGPU found on Raptor Lake designs. Supposedly, Meteor Lake will feature 128 EUs running 2.0+GHz compared to 96 EUs found inside Raptor Lake. The iGPU architecture will switch from Intel Iris to Xe-LPG 'Xe-MTL' family on the 14th gen models, confirming a giant leap in performance that iGPU is supposed to experience. Using the tile-based design, Intel combines the Intel 4 process for the CPU tile and the TSMC 5 nm process for the GPU tile. Intel handles final packaging for additional tuning, and you can see the separation below.

Intel's server processor lineup led by the 4th Gen Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids" processors face stiff competition from AMD 4th Gen EPYC "Genoa" processors that offer significantly higher multi-threaded performance per Watt on account of a higher CPU core-count. The gap is only set to widen, as AMD prepares to launch the "Bergamo" processor for cloud data-centers, with core-counts of up to 128-core/256-thread per socket. A technologically-embattled Intel is preparing quick counters as many as three new server microarchitecture launches over the next 23 months, according to Intel, in its Q4-2022 Financial Results presentation.

The 4th Gen Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids," with a core-count of up to 60-core/120-thread, and various application-specific accelerators, witnessed a quiet launch earlier this month, and is shipping to Intel customers. The company says that it will be joined by the Xeon Scalable "Emerald Rapids" architecture in the second half of 2023; followed by "Granite Rapids" and "Sierra Forest" in 2024. Built on the same LGA4677 package as "Sapphire Rapids," the new "Emerald Rapids" MCM packs up to 64 "Raptor Cove" CPU cores, which support higher clock-speeds, higher memory speeds, and introduce the new Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) instruction-set. The processor retains the 8-channel DDR5 memory interface, but with higher native memory speeds. The chip's main serial interface is a PCI-Express Gen 5 root-complex with 80 lanes. The processor will be built on the last foundry-level refinement of the Intel 7 node (10 nm Enhanced SuperFin); many of these refinements were introduced with the company's 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" client processors.

Intel in its Q4-2022 Financial release call reiterated that its Core "Meteor Lake" processor remains on course for a 2H-2023 launch. The company slide does not mention the client form-factor the architecture targets, and there are still rumors of a "Raptor Lake Refresh" desktop processor lineup for 2H, which would mean that "Meteor Lake" will debut as a high-performance mobile processor architecture attempting to dominate the 7 W, 15 W, 28 W, and 35 W device market-segments, with its 6P+16E CPU that introduce IPC increases on both the P-cores and E-cores; and a powerful new iGPU. The slide also mentions that its succeeding "Lunar Lake" architecture is on course for 2024.

"Meteor Lake" is Intel's first chiplet-based MCM processor, in which the key components of the processor are built on various silicon fabrication nodes, based on their need for such a cutting-edge node; such that the cost-optimization upholds the economic aspect of Moore's Law. The compute tile, the die that has the CPU cores, features a 6P+16E setup, with six "Redwood Cove" P-cores, and sixteen "Crestmont" E-cores. At this point it's not known if "Crestmont" cores are arranged in clusters of 4 cores, each. The graphics tile features a powerful iGPU based on the newer Xe-LPG graphics architecture that meets full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-set. The processor's I/O is expected to support even faster DDR5/LPDDR5 memory speeds, and feature PCIe Gen 5.

Intel Corporation today reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 financial results. The company also announced that its board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.365 per share on the company's common stock, which will be payable on March 1, 2023, to shareholders of record as of February 7, 2023.

"Despite the economic and market headwinds, we continued to make good progress on our strategic transformation in Q4, including advancing our product roadmap and improving our operational structure and processes to drive efficiencies while delivering at the low-end of our guided range," said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. "In 2023, we will continue to navigate the short-term challenges while striving to meet our long-term commitments, including delivering leadership products anchored on open and secure platforms, powered by at-scale manufacturing and supercharged by our incredible team."

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.

A reliable source with CPU and platform leaks, ECSM_Official, made some new predictions about release timelines of upcoming desktop processors, and how 2023 could play out for Intel and AMD. 2022 is done, with no new desktop processor SKUs expected to launch from either brands. Intel is expected to flesh out its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" desktop processor family in Q1 2023, with the addition of "locked" non-K SKUs spanning all four brand extensions (i3/i5/i7/i9). Besides these, Intel is expected to launch its new flagship, the Core i9-13900KS, with boost frequencies hitting the 6 GHz mark, in an attempt to ward off the threat from "Zen 4" with 3D Vertical Cache, a technology that springboarded "Zen 3" gaming performance to match that of "Alder Lake."

Both the i9-13900KS and AMD Ryzen 7000X3D processors are expected to launch toward the middle of H1-2023 (March-April). AMD is only expected to launch 6-core/12-thread and 8-core/16-thread SKUs with the 3DV cache technology. These would be single-CCD packages. There's no word on dual-CCD ones with 12-core or 16-core counts, so a Ryzen 9 7950X3D is not on the horizon. AMD is expected to debut its entry-level A620 motherboard chipset in Q2-2023. This chipset reportedly lacks CPU overclocking capability, is expected to lack PCIe Gen 5, and caps memory speed to DDR5-4800.