Chip giant Intel (INTC +23.33%) is taking a big risk with its Meteor Lake CPUs, which are set to become available in December. Almost everything is changing all at once. Unlike its current-generation Raptor Lake chips, Meteor Lake will be the first PC CPU from Intel to be comprised of multiple tiles stitched together.
Completely different
This tile-based architecture requires some new technology. Intel will use its Foveros advanced packaging tech to assemble Meteor Lake chips, the highest-volume use of the technology so far. This is similar to the advanced packaging techniques used by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) for certain chips. By moving to a tile-based architecture with advanced packaging, Intel is able to mix and match manufacturing processes to lower costs and improve efficiency.
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Key Data Points
Meteor Lake chips will contain four tiles, and only one of them will be manufactured by Intel. The compute tile, which will feature powerful P-cores and efficient E-cores, will be built on the Intel 4 process. Meteor Lake will be the first chip to use Intel 4, and Intel 4 is the first process from Intel to use extreme ultraviolet lithography. Both types of cores are brand new and expected to provide performance improvements over the cores used in Raptor Lake.
The other three tiles are manufactured by TSMC. The graphics tile will use TSMC's N5 node, which is more advanced than Intel 4, while the SoC tile and IO Extender tile will use more mature processes from TSMC. Intel is taking advantage of TSMC's manufacturing lead to boost graphics performance and efficiency, and it's taking advantage of TSMC's mature processes to lower costs for the rest of the chip.
The SoC tile will feature a couple of key innovations. First, additional low-power cores will be available for tasks that don't require the more powerful cores that reside in the compute tile. This should help lower power consumption and thus extend battery life by offloading some workloads from the more power-hungry compute tile.
Second, Meteor Lake will feature dedicated artificial intelligence hardware, a first for Intel's PC chips. The Neural Processing Unit, or NPU, will be capable of running AI inference workloads, which will free up the CPU and GPU. The NPU will require software vendors to support it, but big players including Microsoft are already on board.
Even with all these changes, Intel noted that initial yields on its Intel 4 process are better than expected and the best the company has seen in the decade. That's good news as Intel ramps up Meteor Lake production.
Building the foundation
Intel will build on the changes introduced by Meteor Lake for its next-generation PC CPUs. Arrow Lake, set to launch in 2024, will retain the tile-based architecture and move to the Intel 20A process. This upcoming process will be the first from Intel or anyone else to feature backside power delivery, a technology that can boost density and enable higher frequencies. Intel 20A will also come with a brand-new transistor design called RibbonFET. While Arrow Lake won't bring quite as many changes as Meteor Lake, it will still deliver multiple new innovations.
After Arrow Lake will come Lunar Lake, which is also expected to arrive by late 2024 and be built on either Intel 20A or Intel 18A. Panther Lake will follow in 2025 and will be built on the Intel 18A process. Intel has disclosed few concrete details about Lunar Lake and Panther Lake at this point.
Meteor Lake is launching into a PC market that's still struggling after a pandemic-era boom turned into a bust. Meteor Lake could trigger an upgrade cycle, particularly due to its AI capabilities. But even if it doesn't, Intel's ability to launch Meteor Lake and its Intel 4 process with solid yields is a testament to how far the company has come. It wasn't that long ago that Intel was stuck in a multi-year struggle to get its 10nm process out the door.
Meteor Lake is an ambitious product for Intel. If Meteor Lake systems impress, the company should have little trouble winning back market share from AMD. And with an aggressive roadmap over the next two years, Intel looks to be in good shape to reclaim its dominance if it can continue to execute.
