As promised, Intel has indeed introduced its 15th generation architecture.
The date had already been set several weeks ago by Intel, which has been patiently preparing the launch of this Meteor Lake architecture, which is not officially called "15th generation", as the American brand no longer wishes to quantify its architectures in this way, having launched a disappointing 14th generation - Raptor Lake Refresh - in October. In October? Does this mean that Intel is launching two processor architectures in the space of two months? Yes and no, you might say. Indeed, while Raptor Lake Refresh and Meteor Lake are indeed two distinct architectures - very distinct indeed - the former is intended only for the desktop market, while the latter is focused on the world of notebook PCs.
© Intel
Indeed, while Raptor Lake Refresh focuses on raw power, Meteor Lake seeks to introduce numerous innovations, and Intel is testing them first on the mobile world before, next year, launching Arrow Lake, an architecture more geared towards the desktop processor world... but we're not there yet.
Let's get back to Meteor Lake, which introduces a new engraving node for the American company, the Intel 4, which would once have been called "7 nm", but Intel has renamed it to emphasize its technical proximity to the 4 nm of the Taiwanese foundry TSMC. Meteor Lake is also an opportunity to introduce a new chip assembly technique called Foveros 3D. The principle here is fairly simple - the implementation much less so - since it involves combining "tiles" of different technologies on a single substrate to obtain a chip that goes even further than AMD's chiplets.
Intel
In the case of Intel and Meteor Lake, there are four "tiles". The first is the Compute Tile, which handles all the heavy computing. It is characterized by its Intel 4 etching and the presence of a duo of high-performance (Redwood Cove) and efficient (Crestmont) cores. Nearby, Intel has come up with what it calls the SoC Tile, a kind of processor survival center that gathers together everything needed to keep the processor running. Two other cores - based on the Crestmont - are present here, and this tile is engraved using TSMC's N6 process. The Graphics Tile brings together the Meteor Lake graphics chip with its Xe-Cores in Intel ARC architecture. Note that this tile features a third etching process, TSMC's N5.
Intel
Finally, a fourth tile, the I/O Extender Tile, complements the Meteor Lake processors. It takes care of all I/O and isn't as sexy as the others: that's why Intel isn't focusing its communication on this part of Meteor Lake.
Intel
On the other hand, Intel makes no bones about the list of processors it has developed for this launch. All in all, however, "only" 11 references are mentioned. I say "only" because Intel has become accustomed to pharaonic launches, particularly for its laptop ranges. In this case, the "H" and "U" ranges are the only ones present, since the "P" models have disappeared. Intel's aim is to show that all Meteor Lake processors are low-consumption... even if the table above shows clear differences in TDP, with some processors at 30 W and others at 115 W.
These eleven models also provide an opportunity to introduce Intel's new Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 9 nomenclature. It's worth pointing out that the Core Ultra 5 134U, Core Ultra 7 164U and Core Ultra 9 185H processors won't be released until early next year, while the rest of the band is already available. Intel's classic partners are all on board, and whether ACER, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI or Samsung, to name but a few, many Meteor Lake-equipped notebooks are already available.
