'Meteor Lake' Architecture Detailed: What to Know About Intel's Next-Gen CPUs

19.09.2023 - 16:21 / pcmag.com / Meteor Lake

We've heard plenty over the past year or two, in broad terms, about Intel's upcoming roadmap for its silicon, its fundamental changes to its processor branding, and the new lingo (Intel 4, Intel 7) under which it will be referencing its future manufacturing processes. Here in September, Intel is peeling back another layer from the covering over its next-generation processors, code-named "Meteor Lake."

In the old Intel world, these chips would likely have been dubbed the chip giant's 14th Gen Core processors. But that verbiage is out, and while Intel hasn't detailed any particulars about the names, speeds, or feeds of its first Meteor Lake chips, the company did present a wide view of its coming innovations.

Presumably, Meteor Lake processors will be coming to consumer laptops first (as opposed to desktop chips) given the heavy emphasis in early briefings on efficiency and battery life savings. But Intel still hasn't laid out its hand entirely on this new wave of processors. During a recent series of deep-dive presentations on Meteor Lake for industry and the press, dubbed Intel Tech Tour, Intel detailed new information about how the upcoming chips are made with new designs, updated technology, and fresh features that, it claims, will boost performance and efficiency going forward.

Again: Intel isn't yet discussing specific upcoming Meteor Lake chip models, talking about first implementations, or sharing fine details about performance. But during the Tech Tour, it revealed plenty of inside-baseball information regarding Meteor Lake. The newest Intel mobile processors should feature several changes, from the manufacturing and design of the chips to the capabilities available to users. Here's a quick overview of all the new stuff, from the silicon on up.

We learned earlier this year that Intel chips were set up for a major re-branding, giving Intel's Core processors simpler names and retiring the explicit generation numbers (12th Gen Core, 13th Gen Core, and so on). But Meteor Lake changes much more than just the labels. Intel revamped almost everything about the new chips, from the die layout to the architecture, adding new features, new capabilities, and a course for more innovation going forward.

Meteor Lake also includes changes to the manufacturing processes, introduces a reimagined "stacked" 3D design combining the parts of the CPU, and expands on the tiered high-power-vs.-low-power processor-core approach introduced in recent years. With so much going on, it's time to reintroduce the familiar Intel processor. This processor design is behind what Intel will likely call its first generation of Intel Core Ultra processors, dropping the "i" for simplicity.

Intel's biggest upgrade is at the foundry