Intel Says Meteor Lake & Raptor Lake CPUs Have Very Similar P-Core & E-Core Architectures, Intel 4 Brings Efficiency Improvements

02.10.2023 - 15:27 / wccftech.com / Meteor Lake / Raptor Lake

Intel has revealed that Meteor Lake P-Cores & E-Cores are architecturally very much alike to Raptor Lake but there are some improvements with the Intel 4 process node bringing in higher efficiency.

The Intel Meteor Lake, 1st Gen Core Ultra, CPUs are scheduled for launch on the 14th of December & the company recently unveiled a whole lot of details regarding the latest chips at Innovation 2023 which we covered here. The CPUs will be making use of advanced packaging technologies, a brand new process node, and new cores but will also be very architecturally similar to Intel's Raptor Lake CPUs.

In an interview with ITHome, Intel's Timothy Wilson, who acts as the VP of Design Engineering Group and General Manager of the SOC Design division, revealed that Meteor Lake CPUs are architecturally similar when it comes to the types of cores they both feature. We know that Intel is equipping Meteor Lake chips with new P-Cores codenamed Redwood Cove & E-Cores codenamed Crestmont.

Intel Meteor Lake & Raptor Lake P-Core Architecture:

Intel Meteor Lake & Raptor Lake E-Core Architecture:

Initially, it was thought that these cores would bring a bigger upgrade over Raptor Lake's P-Core codenamed Raptor Cove and E-Core codenamed Gracemont but it looks like the design will be very similar. In fact, even Raptor Cove's architecture is essentially an enhancement of the Alder Lake P-Core codenamed Golden Cove while the E-Cores are the same. Following is the statement:

Compared to the previous generation of Raptor Lake, the microarchitecture of both the P and E cores in Meteor Lake has some improvements. However, we introduced Meteor Lake with the new Intel 4 process. In general, when we introduce new processes, we tend to reduce the risk in terms of architecture. Once we achieve a stable process flow, we tend to make a bigger leap by improving the architecture. So, since this is a new big node update for us, and we can also get the energy efficiency benefits of Intel 4, we've made very few changes to the core architecture, so they're architecturally very similar to Raptor Lake's E-cores and P-cores.

Timothy Wilson (Vice President of Design Engineering Group & General Manager of SOC Design at Intel) via ITHome

Timothy states that while there will be some architectural improvements, they aren't as significant since Meteor Lake CPUs are built on a brand new node and those bigger upgrades will come once the process becomes more stable and better in terms of overall yields. So it looks like Intel went with a less risky route with its first EUV and chiplet design. The bigger upgrade is likely to come in the following year in the form of Arrow Lake which also offers new P-Cores and E-Cores and makes use of the Intel 20A process node.

So