Intel's forthcoming Core Ultra 7 1002H "Meteor Lake" mobile CPU has been sighted a few times, thanks to samples turning up on the Geekbench Browser database. We are months away from the official launch day—December 14—but multiple models have been leaking out since late summer. Team Blue has used different designations for evaluation and qualification silicon—we can assume that another Ultra 7 165H appearing online (courtesy of Geekbench 6.1 tests) has concreted that nomenclature as the finished/final article. Model codes and hierarchy information were not made available at Intel Innovation 2023 (last week), where Team Blue reps discussed Meteor Lake's AI-crunching capabilities.

Leaked information shows the Core Ultra 7 1002H being nigh identical in terms of specifications (16 cores/22 threads) and engineering platform (MTL-P). Benchmarked results between the engineering sample (1002H) and Core Ultra 7 165H are pretty close—respectively: 2439 versus 2502 (single-core) and 12668 versus 12545 (multi-core). We are seeing a slight improvement in single-threaded performance, but the prototype edges out its newer counterpart by 123 points. Both units were benched on an "Intel Corporation Meteor Lake Client Platform," using balanced power plans in Windows 11 (Pro and Enterprise, respectively).

Andreas Schilling, editor at Hardwareluxx, noticed some interesting looking Intel Meteor Lake-related merchandise very recently—last week's Innovation event served as a proper public unveiling of the next generation mobile processor series, scheduled to launch on December 14. Team Blue showcased their new advanced disaggregated chiplet design during a keynote presentation, but did not provide a comprehensive breakdown of upcoming SKUs and feature sets. A couple of clues were presented in plain sight (see below)—Schilling reckons that some tongue-in-cheek marketing was in effect: "Intel is leaking with its own swag. We know there will be different configurations of the compute, I/O and graphics tiles with Meteor Lake. The GPU will use 8 or 4 Xe cores it seems."

Intel has hyped up Meteor Lake's integrated GPU chiplet as having "performance parallelism and throughput, ideal for AI infused in media, 3D applications and the render pipeline." VideoCardz had this to say about the Alchemist-derived setup: "This integration of Xe-LPG architecture is expected to deliver a 2x performance boost compared to the existing Xe-LP architecture found in Raptor Lake. Intel put a lot of emphasis on supporting 10 W gaming with this architecture, potentially opening a new competing front versus AMD RDNA 3 in handheld." The Meteor Lake "swag" hints that at least two different configurations are in the works, with 8 or 4 Xe-Cores (as printed on the two pieces of merch). Intel's Meteor Lake SKU hierarchy could consist of models with varying levels of iGPU potency, since the chiplet design provides a great deal of flexibility.

PC World's senior editor, Mark Hachman, managed to corner an important Team Blue staffer during this week's Innovation 2023 event, where Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" processors were presented in an official manner. This CPU family is set to arrive on December 14, but starting out only in mobile form—past leaks have yoyo-ed between rumored plans for desktop variants being alive or getting canned entirely. Michelle Johnston Holthaus—executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group at Intel Corporation—confirmed to PC World in a video interview that Meteor Lake desktop SKUs are scheduled for launch next year. She elaborated on this slightly surprising declaration: "I want one processor family top to bottom for both segments, doesn't everybody?"

Exact details regarding release timings were not disclosed, but previous leaks have indicated that the rest of Intel's 14th Gen Core/Raptor Lake Refresh desktop lineup is due in early 2024—a product launch of 65 W TDP-rated SKUs could coincide with CES 2024. A "Meteor Lake-S" desktop CPU series is speculated to be placed mid-year, while the Arrow Lake generation is believed to be slated for late 2024. Reports have suggested that Meteor Lake has been delayed numerous times due to developmental setbacks—a leaked presentation slide seemed to show MTL-S SKUs (on socket LGA1851) being limited to 35 and 65 W TDPs, thus restricting the range to Core i3 and i5 product lines. Intel's new naming scheme—for the Meteor Lake generation—will assign "Core Ultra 5" instead of "Core i5" if new models land in the "Premium" processor bracket. We are not entirely sure where the future equivalent to "Core i3" will stick in the lower-end hierarchy, but the revised naming system suggests that it will only exist within Intel's "Mainstream" tier—so just a plain "Core 3," without any mention of Ultra performance or feature set.

Team Blue's marketing team has kicked into hype mode—Meteor Lake is launching at the tail end of 2023—with a shift in naming conventions comes another rebranding of internal technologies. The previously identified versatile processing unit (VPU) is now going under a different moniker: "Intel will usher in the age of the AI PC with the upcoming Intel Core Ultra processors, code-named Meteor Lake, featuring Intel's first integrated neural processing unit, or NPU, for power-efficient AI acceleration and local inference on the PC. Intel confirmed Core Ultra will launch Dec. 14." Michael Larabel, principal author at Phoronix, has noticed that newly updated versions of the Linux kernel have the "IVPU" accelerator driver bundled in. This will: "support Meteor Lake's VPU/NPU, while a patch is pending to extend that support for next-generation Arrow Lake processors."

In his opinion, there are some shared aspects across the two CPU generations: "Intel's Arrow Lake NPU appears very similar to that of Meteor Lake with the driver enablement coming down to adding new PCI IDs...(with) this patch adding the new Arrow Lake PCI IDs to the existing Meteor Lake driver code paths for this DRM accelerator driver is all that's needed to enable the VPU." Team Blue jumped two generations ahead at this week's Innovation event—Lunar Lake showed up in a live demo. Larabel believes that this late 2024 CPU family will revolve the dial to a greater degree: "The VPU/NPU with Lunar Lake brings more significant changes with the open-source driver changes already underway there. With Lunar Lake is the new VPU4 IP and the Linux 6.6 kernel with its updated IVPU driver already has initial support there."

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.

Intel at the 2023 InnovatiON event surprised audiences with a live demo of a reference notebook powered by a Core "Lunar Lake" processor. What's surprising about this is that "Lunar Lake" won't come out until 2025 (at least), and succeeds not just the upcoming "Meteor Lake" architecture, but also its succeeding "Arrow Lake," which debuts in 2024. Intel is expected to debut "Meteor Lake" some time later this year. What's also surprising is that Intel has proven that the Intel 18A foundry node works. The Compute tile of "Lunar Lake" is expected to be based on Intel 18A, which is four generations ahead of the current Intel 7, which will be succeeded by Intel 4, Intel 3, and Intel 20A along the way.

The demo focused on the generative AI capabilities of Intel's third generation NPU, the hardware backend of AI Boost. Using a local session of a tool similar to Stable Diffusion, the processor was made to generate the image of a giraffe wearing a hat; and a GPT program was made to pen the lyrics of a song in the genre of Taylor Swift from scratch. Both tasks were completed on stage using the chip's NPU, and in timeframes you'd normally expect from discrete AI accelerators or cloud-based services.

Pre-release Meteor Lake silicon has popped up again thanks to an Intel Corporation Client Platform getting submitted for evaluation through Geekbench 6.1.0. The latest database entry—discovered by Benchleaks—presents yet another Core Ultra 100H mobile CPU series engineering sample. This new candidate could end up being named "Core Ultra 165H" once it hits retail in finalized form. Team Blue seems to be playing around with its naming/identifying schemes ahead of an official unveiling—we hope to see something sensible presented at this month's Innovation event.

The tested Meteor Lake Client Platform featured a Core Ultra 7 1002H CPU mounted on an MTL-P LP5x T4 RVP board, with access to 12 GB of memory. Clock speeds of 3.4 GHz (base) and 4.988 GHz are mentioned on the Geekbench Browser page. A 6 P-Core and 10 E-Core configuration aligns this evaluated sample with the previously leaked Core Ultra 7 165H SKU. It achieved a single-core score of 2439 points in Geekbench 6.1, placing it above previously submitted Meteor Lake samples. The multi-core tally comes in at 12668, which trails slightly behind other compiled scores.

During a recent demonstration, Intel showcased its cutting-edge packaging technologies, EMIB (embedded multi-die interconnect bridge) and Foveros, unveiling the highly-anticipated Meteor Lake processor with integrated LPDDR5X memory. This move appears to align with Apple's successful integration of LPDDR memory into its M1 and M2 chip packages. At the heart of Intel's presentation was the quad-tile Meteor Lake CPU, leveraging Foveros packaging for its chiplets and boasting 16 GB of Samsung's LPDDR5X-7500 memory. Although the specific CPU configuration remains undisclosed, the 16 GB of integrated memory delivers a remarkable peak bandwidth of 120 GB/s, outperforming traditional memory subsystems using DDR5-5200 or LPDDR5-6400.

Nevertheless, this approach comes with trade-offs, such as the potential for system-wide failure if a memory chip malfunctions, limited upgradeability in soldered-down configurations, and the need for more advanced cooling solutions to manage CPU and memory heat. While Apple pioneered on-package LPDDR memory integration in client CPUs, Intel has a history of using package-on-package DRAM with its Atom-branded CPUs for tablets and ultrathin laptops. While this approach simplifies manufacturing, enabling slimmer notebook designs, it curtails configuration flexibility. We are yet to see if big laptop makers such as Dell, HP, and Asus, take on this design in the coming months.

The latest version (1.52) of the HWMonitor application is prepared in advance for a wide variety of incoming PC hardware products—most notably Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh desktop processors. The release notes mention specific SKUs including: Core i5-14600K/KF (14 cores), i7-14700K/KF (20 cores) and i9-14900K/KF (24 cores)—these CPUs have emerged across a number of recent leaks. We expect Team Blue to present these models, in an official capacity, to the world at their Innovation 2023 event (starting September 19).

Non-specific Core 3,5 & 7, plus Core Ultra 5, 7 & 9 series CPUs are also mentioned in the patch notes, pointing to a mixed bag of (i.e very confusing) 14th Generation products comprised of Raptor Lake Refresh (possibly mobile variants) as well as Meteor Lake ranges lined up for "preliminary" support within HWMonitor v1.52. AMD's already announced Radeon (Navi 32) RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT GPUs have also been added to the app's compatibility roster.

TrendForce expects that memory suppliers will continue their strategy of scaling back production of both DRAM and NAND Flash in 2024, with the cutback being particularly pronounced in the financially struggling NAND Flash sector. Market demand visibility for consumer electronic is projected to remain uncertain in 1H24. Additionally, capital expenditure for general-purpose servers is expected to be weakened due to competition from AI servers. Considering the low baseline set in 2023 and the current low pricing for some memory products, TrendForce anticipates YoY bit demand growth rates for DRAM and NAND Flash to be 13% and 16%, respectively. Nonetheless, achieving effective inventory reduction and restoring supply-demand balance next year will largely hinge on suppliers' ability to exercise restraint in their production capacities. If managed effectively, this could open up an opportunity for a rebound in average memory prices.

PC: The annual growth rate for average DRAM capacity is projected at approximately 12.4%, driven mainly by Intel's new Meteor Lake CPUs coming into mass production in 2024. This platform's DDR5 and LPDDR5 exclusivity will likely make DDR5 the new mainstream, surpassing DDR4 in the latter half of 2024. The growth rate in PC client SSDs will not be as robust as that of PC DRAM, with just an estimated growth of 8-10%. As consumer behavior increasingly shifts toward cloud-based solutions, the demand for laptops with large storage capacities is decreasing. Even though 1 TB models are becoming more available, 512 GB remains the predominant storage option. Furthermore, memory suppliers are maintaining price stability by significantly reducing production. Should prices hit rock bottom and subsequently rebound, PC OEMs are expected to face elevated SSD costs. This, when combined with Windows increasing its licensing fees for storage capacities at and above 1 TB, is likely to put a damper on further growth in average storage capacities.

Every week, Zheng Jiong (ZJ), Intel China's senior director of Client Customer Engineering in the Client Computing Group (CCG), and his team of engineers make the hourlong drive across Shanghai to meet with their counterparts at Lenovo. They make a beeline to the new Advanced System Innovation Lab deep inside Lenovo's offices. It's here that engineers from both companies pool their collective brainpower to solve some of the world's toughest hardware and software challenges - the ones that pave the path to lighter, sleeker and ever-more-powerful laptops that many consumers and businesses depend on every day. This new 750-square-foot lab, which opened in July, is filled with cutting-edge tech tools and laptop prototypes in various stages of development. It's one of many joint engineering labs across the world populated by Intel and Lenovo engineers.

Joint labs like these allow engineers to focus on solving tough issues-- ones that need to be addressed to prevent product delays or empty holiday gift boxes.
Said ZJ: "We share a long and illustrious history of deep engineering collaboration with Lenovo." He added that Intel has dedicated engineers tasked with specific roles in enabling and developing new designs together with their lead collaborator. "We work together very well and are thankful for the innovation support Lenovo has given us through joint labs like these."

Intel Innovation is Intel's yearly tech conference and the company has revealed some of what it'll share at the event that kicks off on the 19th of September. One of the sessions at the event is called Intel Client Hardware Roadmap and the Rise of AI and during that event, Intel will be sharing its latest "client hardware platforms" which according to the session blurb will include the upcoming Intel Core Ultra processors which currently goes under the codename of Meteor Lake.

It's unclear how much detail Intell will go into and based on the subject of the session, this should most likely be focused on the desktop platform, but could also cover the mobile parts. According to VideoCardz we should expect Intel to detail the integrated VPU which is said to be based on hardware from Movidius, a company Intel acquired a few years ago and that focused on making machine learning hardware. The VPU should be a low-power accelerator that handles AI inference tasks that will be part of at least some future Intel processors, but for now, we don't really know what Intel's plans are for these types of features in its CPUs, apart from offering something competitive with AMD's Xilinx derived AI Engine.

Intel Corporation today reported second-quarter 2023 financial results. "Our Q2 results exceeded the high end of our guidance as we continue to execute on our strategic priorities, including building momentum with our foundry business and delivering on our product and process roadmaps," said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. "We are also well-positioned to capitalize on the significant growth across the AI continuum by championing an open ecosystem and silicon solutions that optimize performance, cost and security to democratize AI from cloud to enterprise, edge and client."

David Zinsner, Intel CFO, said, "Strong execution, including progress towards our $3 billion in cost savings in 2023, contributed to the upside in the quarter. We remain focused on operational efficiencies and our Smart Capital strategy to support sustainable growth and financial discipline as we improve our margins and cash generation and drive shareholder value." In the second quarter, the company generated $2.8 billion in cash from operations and paid dividends of $0.5 billion.

According to a short article released by ITHome, Machenike, a popular Chinese PC hardware company displayed several interesting Intel CPU-based systems at the Bilibili World exhibition (in Shanghai). The manufacturer confirmed (to the reporter) that their next generation hardware will be hitting the market within the next three months, which coincides with the rumored launch of Intel 14th Gen Core Raptor Lake-Refresh desktop K-series SKUs.

Exhibited material implied that Machenike's upcoming PCs—arriving in the form of a "LIGHT-05" desktop tower, mini models and laptops—could be among the first batch of systems to support PCIe Gen 5 storage (as standard). Potential buyers could be attracted to next-gen machines offering access to faster NVMe SSD, on top of rumored higher core counts provided by the Raptor Lake Refresh. ITHome believes that a number of the mini-PCs at Machenike's booth were already running on Raptor Lake Refresh or (Core rebrand) Meteor Lake processors.

FinalWire Ltd. today announced the immediate availability of AIDA64 Extreme 6.90 software, a streamlined diagnostic and benchmarking tool for home users; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Engineer 6.90 software, a professional diagnostic and benchmarking solution for corporate IT technicians and engineers; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Business 6.90 software, an essential network management solution for small and medium scale enterprises; and the immediate availability of AIDA64 Network Audit 6.90 software, a dedicated network audit toolset to collect and manage corporate network inventories. The new AIDA64 update supports the latest AMD and Intel CPU platforms as well as the new graphics and GPGPU computing technologies by AMD, Intel and nVIDIA.

DOWNLOAD: FinalWire AIDA64 Extreme v6.90

Chinese tech tipster Golden Pig Upgrade has turned its attention to Intel's Meteor Lake processor series—they believe that hardware partners are putting qualification samples (QS) through the ringer. The short Bilibili social media post proposes that these laptop-oriented prototypes sport six high-performance Redwood Cove cores running at 4.80 GHz, eight energy-efficient Crestmont cores, as well as two low-power Crestmont cores. Apparently the unit's TDP can be adjusted—starting at 20 W, and going up to 65 W. Golden Pig Upgrade was also informed about a Core Ultra 9 model capable of hitting 5.0 GHz (or greater) maximum CPU clocks.

The qualification sample's integrated graphics processing unit is reportedly based on the Xe-LPG architecture—some experts reckon that this could offer performance (4.5 FP32 TFLOPS) comparable to Arc A380 or A370M discrete solutions. The sampled iGPU could feature up to 128 execution units (so equivalent to 1024 stream processors, as well as 8 Xe clusters)—insider sources allege that units can boost to a maximum of 2.2 GHz. It will be interesting to observe how this will stack up against AMD's Radeon 780M iGPU—which is theoretically in a similar ballpark (4.3 FP32 TFLOPS).

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.