Intel Teases Meteor Lake 5-125W Core CPUs With Up To 192 EU GPU, 12th Gen Alder Lake Hinted For 27th October Launch

Intel has teased its next-generation Meteor Lake CPUs during the IDM 2.0 Accelerated keynote where the company presented its brand new process and packaging roadmap. In addition to the teaser, Intel also hinted at a possible launch date of its upcoming Alder Lake hybrid CPUs during early Q4 2021.

Intel Teases Meteor Lake ‘Intel 7’ CPU Specifications, Alder Lake CPUs Hinted For Launch on 27th October

Intel not only presented its brand new process and packaging roadmap but also teased products that will be utilizing its new nodes, mainly Intel 7 and Intel 4. First up, we have Alder Lake Client & Sapphire Rapids Data Center chips which will be based upon the Intel 7 node (previously Intel 10 Enhanced SuperFin).

Intel 7 Process Powered Alder Lake Client & Sapphire Rapids Data Center CPUs

Based on what Intel showed during the event, it looks like we can confirm that the leaks we have seen so far are more or less confirmed. The Alder Lake CPU can be seen using a hybrid design & features 8 high-performance cores (Golden Cove) and 8 efficiency optimized cores (Gracemont). Intel also kind of hinted at the launch date of its 12th Gen Alder Lake family for 27th October and that aligns with earlier rumors that we heard about the CPUs launching around Halloween 2021. The next Intel ON series event will take place virtually in San Francisco on October 27-28, 2021.

Moving on, we have Intel’s Sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon CPU which is composed of four compute tiles. We have more detailed images of the complete die leak out before which confirm up to 56 cores & 112 threads.

Intel 4 Process Powered Meteor Lake Client & Granite Rapids Data Center CPUs

Intel 4 will also power two key client and data center products which are codenamed Meteor Lake & Granite Rapids. This is the first time Intel has given a detailed look at the Meteor Lake SOC that features three separate chiplets that are connected together through Forveros technology. Intel is expected to utilize a next-generation core architecture that will power the compute die while the I/O will be located on its own SOC-LP die. The GPU die will also be separate and will be composed of up to 192 EU (96 EU for Desktops & 192 EUs for Mobility). The Meteor Lake lineup will comprise 5-125W CPUs and feature a bump pitch of 36u (microns).

Here’s Everything We Know About The 14th Gen Meteor Lake 7nm CPUs

We already got some details from Intel such as the fact that Intel’s Meteor Lake line of desktop and mobility CPUs are expected to be based on a new line of Cove core architecture. This is rumored to be known as the ‘Redwood Cove’ and will be based on a 7nm EUV process node. It is stated that the Redwood Cove is designed from the ground up to be an agnostic node which means that it can be fabricated at different fabs. There are references mentioned that point out to TSMC to be a backup or even a partial supplier for the Redwood Cove-based chips. This might tell us why Intel is stating multiple manufacturing processes for the CPU family.

The Meteor Lake CPUs may possibly be the first CPU generation from Intel to say farewell to the ring bus interconnect architecture. There are also rumors that Meteor Lake could be a fully 3D-Stacked design and could utilize an I/O die sourced from an external fab (TSMC sighted again). It is highlighted that Intel will be officially utilizing its Foveros Packaging Technology on the CPU to inter-connect the various dies on the chip (XPU). This also aligns with Intel referring to each tile on 14th Gen chips individually (Compute Tile = CPU Cores).

The Meteor Lake Desktop CPU family is expected to retain support on the LGA 1700 socket which is the same socket used by Alder Lake & Raptor Lake processors. We can expect DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5.0 support. The platform will support both DDR5 & DDR4 memory with the mainstream and budget tier options going for DDR4 memory DIMMs while the premium & high-end offerings going for DDR5 DIMMs. The site also lists down both Meteor Lake P and Meteor Lake M CPUs that will be aimed at mobility platforms.

Intel Desktop CPU Generations Comparison:

Intel CPU Family	Processor Process	Processors Cores (Max)	TDPs	Platform Chipset	Platform	Memory Support	PCIe Support	Launch
Sandy Bridge (2nd Gen)	32nm	4/8	35-95W	6-Series	LGA 1155	DDR3	PCIe Gen 2.0	2011
Ivy Bridge (3rd Gen)	22nm	4/8	35-77W	7-Series	LGA 1155	DDR3	PCIe Gen 3.0	2012
Haswell (4th Gen)	22nm	4/8	35-84W	8-Series	LGA 1150	DDR3	PCIe Gen 3.0	2013-2014
Broadwell (5th Gen)	14nm	4/8	65-65W	9-Series	LGA 1150	DDR3	PCIe Gen 3.0	2015
Skylake (6th Gen)	14nm	4/8	35-91W	100-Series	LGA 1151	DDR4	PCIe Gen 3.0	2015
Kaby Lake (7th Gen)	14nm	4/8	35-91W	200-Series	LGA 1151	DDR4	PCIe Gen 3.0	2017
Coffee Lake (8th Gen)	14nm	6/12	35-95W	300-Series	LGA 1151	DDR4	PCIe Gen 3.0	2017
Coffee Lake (9th Gen)	14nm	8/16	35-95W	300-Series	LGA 1151	DDR4	PCIe Gen 3.0	2018
Comet Lake (10th Gen)	14nm	10/20	35-125W	400-Series	LGA 1200	DDR4	PCIe Gen 3.0	2020
Rocket Lake (11th Gen)	14nm	8/16	35-125W	500-Series	LGA 1200	DDR4	PCIe Gen 4.0	2021
Alder Lake (12th Gen)	Intel 7	16/24	TBA	600 Series	LGA 1700	DDR5	PCIe Gen 5.0	2021
Raptor Lake (13th Gen)	Intel 7	16/30?	TBA	700-Series	LGA 1700	DDR5	PCIe Gen 5.0	2022
Meteor Lake (14th Gen)	Intel 4	TBA	TBA	800 Series?	LGA 1700	DDR5	PCIe Gen 5.0?	2023
Lunar Lake (15th Gen)	Intel 3?	TBA	TBA	900 Series?	TBA	DDR5	PCIe Gen 5.0?	2023+

Intel has also showcased its next-generation Granite Rapids datacenter Xeon CPU which seems to be featuring several dies packaged through Forveros and EMIB. We can see HBM packages along with high-bandwidth Rambo Cache packages. The Compute tile seems to be composed of 60 cores per die which equals 120 cores in total but we should expect a few of those cores to be disabled to get better yields on the new Intel 4 process node.

Intel Xeon SP Families:

Family Branding	Skylake-SP	Cascade Lake-SP/AP	Cooper Lake-SP	Ice Lake-SP	Sapphire Rapids	Emerald Rapids	Granite Rapids	Diamond Rapids
Process Node	14nm+	14nm++	14nm++	10nm+	Intel 7	Intel 7	Intel 4	Intel 3?
Platform Name	Intel Purley	Intel Purley	Intel Cedar Island	Intel Whitley	Intel Eagle Stream	Intel Eagle Stream	Intel Mountain Stream Intel Birch Stream	Intel Mountain Stream Intel Birch Stream
MCP (Multi-Chip Package) SKUs	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	TBD	TBD (Possibly Yes)	TBD (Possibly Yes)
Socket	LGA 3647	LGA 3647	LGA 4189	LGA 4189	LGA 4677	LGA 4677	LGA 4677	TBD
Max Core Count	Up To 28	Up To 28	Up To 28	Up To 40	Up To 56?	TBD	Up To 120?	TBD
Max Thread Count	Up To 56	Up To 56	Up To 56	Up To 80	Up To 112?	TBD	Up To 240?	TBD
Max L3 Cache	38.5 MB L3	38.5 MB L3	38.5 MB L3	60 MB L3	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
Memory Support	DDR4-2666 6-Channel	DDR4-2933 6-Channel	Up To 6-Channel DDR4-3200	Up To 8-Channel DDR4-3200	Up To 8-Channel DDR5-4800	Up To 8-Channel DDR5-5200?	TBD	TBD
PCIe Gen Support	PCIe 3.0 (48 Lanes)	PCIe 3.0 (48 Lanes)	PCIe 3.0 (48 Lanes)	PCIe 4.0 (64 Lanes)	PCIe 5.0 (80 lanes)	PCIe 5.0	PCIe 6.0?	PCIe 6.0?
TDP Range	140W-205W	165W-205W	150W-250W	105-270W	Up To 350W?	TBD	TBD	TBD
3D Xpoint Optane DIMM	N/A	Apache Pass	Barlow Pass	Barlow Pass	Crow Pass	Crow Pass?	Donahue Pass?	Donahue Pass?
Competition	AMD EPYC Naples 14nm	AMD EPYC Rome 7nm	AMD EPYC Rome 7nm	AMD EPYC Milan 7nm+	AMD EPYC Genoa ~5nm	AMD Next-Gen EPYC (Post Genoa)	AMD Next-Gen EPYC (Post Genoa)	AMD Next-Gen EPYC (Post Genoa)
Launch	2017	2018	2020	2021	2022	2023?	2023?	2024?

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