Meteor Lake: Intel’s Upcoming Mobile Processors Features New ’Tile’ Based Architecture

Computer processors are the tiny engines that power computers. They determine how fast and effectively machines can compute data and process information. Intel remains the world’s number-one chip maker, with over 60% of the market share. Although Apple switched to its M1 line of CPU processors starting in the 2020s, Intel continues to dominate. Now, with its new line of semiconductor chips, Meteor Lake, Intel is poised to take CPU computing to the next level.

Intel’s Evolution

Intel was founded in July 1968 by American engineers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore after a $2.5 million initial funding spearheaded by Arthur Rock. The company started by producing memory chips, of which the 1KB DRAM chip was the most successful. At the time, DRAMs were cheap, consumed less power than core memory, and gained popularity with computers around the world. The company continued to innovate, first introducing the Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM) chip before going on to focus on microprocessors. Its biggest success came when it partnered with computer manufacturers IBM and OS makers Microsoft to deliver a popular line of machines that continues to dominate the industry to date. 

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Introducing Intel’s Meteor Lake

Intel’s 13th generation of Intel Core computer processors will soon be making way for the “Meteor Lake”, its high-end microprocessor series. In the past, this new technology would be referred to as the 14th generation of Core processors. But, Intel has decided to switch up on the verbiage, choosing to codename its latest innovation, “Meteor Lake”. The new line of microprocessors will be rolled out to laptops first rather than desktop computers. Meteor Lake processors are made with fresh designs, updated technology, and new features that will boost computing performance and efficiency going forward.

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Overview of Intel’s Meteor Lake

The new line of computer processors is built using Intel’s brand-new tile technology, which is similar to AMD’s chips. However, the key difference between Intel’s tiles and AMD’s is that Intel is dedicating each tile with a unique function. The Meteor Lake has four tiles: A Compute tile with CPU cores; An SoC tile with display connectivity, wireless technology, and an AI processor called a Neural Processing Unit (Or NPU); A GPU tile with graphics cores; And an IO tile that contains important integrations for Thunderbolt and PCIe. The Meteor Lake line of microprocessors will come with a core configuration of six performance cores and eight efficiency cores, which are two fewer performance cores than the preceding Raptor Lake chip, the Core i9-13900K. Meteor Lake’s Compute tile is built on the Intel 4 node, previously known as Intel 7nm.

Enhanced Computing Efficiency

Intel’s new tile-based architecture uses Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. This chip manufacturing technique lets chipmakers make even smaller chips. This way, they keep in line with Moore’s Law, packing even more transistors on tinier surfaces. Compared with the previous 10nm Intel 7 process, Intel 4 is expected to deliver 20% better performance per watt. The technology is also optimised for high-performance apps and supports both high and low-voltage computing. 

Conclusion

Intel’s Meteor Lake will be launched on December 14th, 2023, and is set to be Intel’s most power-efficient computer processor the company has ever made. It has a low-power island that can run tasks independently and double computer graphics performance. The Meteor Lake’s other computer processor cores will be distributed among a tile that houses the performance and efficiency cored. It’ll also come with a dedicated Graphics Tile on TSMC N5.