Intel’s flagship next-generation processor family is on schedule according to the company’s previously released roadmap, said CEO Pat Gelsinger.
Intel’s disappointing financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 were largely the result of a weakening economy, but delays in data center products also plagued the company’s earnings. However, Gelsinger used the earnings call to reaffirm the company’s roadmap and show that all products are on track for release. On the client side, Intel’s Meteor Lake is set to go live in his 2023, while Lunar Lake has completed its scheduled tapeout. At the data center, Emerald Rapids will begin production this year, with its successor Granite Rapids due in his 2024.
client side
Meteor Lake is an important milestone for Intel for two reasons. It is the company’s first client CPU to rely on a finely-divided multi-tile design and the first CPU from Intel to use Intel 4 process technology (aka 7nm). A node using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The system-in-package consists of 4 tiles: compute tiles (CPU cores), graphics styles generated by TSMC (probably using that he N3 or N5 node), SoC tiles, and I/O tiles. The tiles are interconnected using Intel’s Foveros 3D technology.
“As for Intel 4, it is ready for production today and we are looking forward to seeing MTL (Meteor Lake) later this year.” Said (opens in new tab) Gelsinger.
As of now, it’s not entirely clear if Intel plans to release Meteor Lake into the desktop space, or leave it as a mobile-only product like it did with Ice Lake and Tiger Lake a few years ago. Considering the unofficial information about the Raptor Lake-S Refresh for desktops, it’s possible that Meteor Lake will remain part of laptops and compact desktops but Intel hasn’t confirmed this yet. Intel, on the other hand, is set to start producing Meteor Lake CPUs this year.
Intel’s next subdivision (multi-chiplet) design is codenamed Lunar Lake. It’s based on an all-new microarchitecture (as we suspected last year) that Intel hopes will reclaim the performance-per-watt crown. The CPU completed its tape-out in the second half of 2022 as planned, so it’s on track to “ready for production in 2024.”
The Intel head said, “With MTL on track, it would be appropriate to tape out the first silicon and expect Lunar Lake to be on track for production readiness in 2024. Lunar Lake is optimized for ultra-low power performance, enabling more PC partners to create ultra-thin and light systems for mobile users.”
Data center side
Intel’s 4th Generation Xeon Scalable Data Center ‘Sapphire Rapids’ will officially launch on January 10th and will be succeeded by Emerald Rapids processors. The CPU giant once said Emerald Rapids that he plans to “compete” (i.e. hit the market) in 2023. As of now, there are no changes to plans for Emerald Rapids.
Meanwhile, next-generation Xeon processors based on Intel’s high-performance Granite Rapids cores and the company’s first Xeon CPUs with energy-efficient Sierra Forest cores are expected in 2024. when the processor actually boots.
“Emerald Rapids is sampling, has completed power-up with top OEM and CSP customers, and is on track to launch in the second half of 2023.” says Gelsinger. “Granite Rapids is the next performance core to be added to the Xeon portfolio and is on track for a 2024 launch, running multiple operating systems in various configurations. Additionally, our first An efficient core product, Sierra Forrest, is also on track for his 2024.”
