The next generation of Intel processors, only for laptops?

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The next generation of Intel processors, only for laptops?

generation, Intel, laptops, processors

It is customary for Intel to create two versions of each of its PC processor architectures, one for desktops and one for laptops. Well, it’s no secret that the Intel Core 14 will be next and will be based on the Meteor Lake architecture. However, there are rumors that its desktop version, the Meteor Lake-S would have been cancelled. Are these rumors true or are they exaggerations taken out of context?

It wouldn’t be the first time that Intel decides not to launch an architecture for both desktops and laptops, we’ve seen it before with the Intel Core 11. Of course, we have to clarify that What is being said about Meteor Lake-S, the Intel Core 14 desktop versions are just rumors at the moment. However, we decided to comment on them, as we have been hearing these waters resonating lately.

Are Intel Meteor Lake-S processors cancelled?

What differentiates Meteor Lake from other CPU architectures produced by Intel to date is that we are dealing with a disaggregated chip. Which means that instead of having a single chip, we have several different chips where each of them performs a different function. We have already seen this idea in AMD’s Ryzen, but Intel will be the first to bring it to laptops, unless Lisa Su’s team surprises in this regard at the next CES.

Intel-4-Meteor-Lake

The difference is that while AMD uses the concept of chiplet, which we could translate into Spanish as “chipito”, Intel uses the meaning Tile. It’s the same concept in both cases. These are not several symmetrical chips, but different elements with a specific and complementary function.

  • Calculation tile: where the different cores and their corresponding caches are located.
  • GFX Tile: This is the chip that houses the integrated graphics card.
  • IO tiles: peripheral interfaces.
  • SoC tile: the integrated memory controller.

Well, we have to start from the fact that in the case of the Meter Lake-S or the desktop version of the Intel Core 14 there would be certain differences compared to the laptop version. Especially when it comes to the IO tile, since a tower motherboard should have greater connectivity. That is, in a laptop CPU, the IO tile would be the entire chipset, while in a desktop, it wouldn’t be because the chipset exists. This would be counterproductive for the desktop business model. However, this would not be the only change from version to version.

Not so generational leap

When Intel talked about Meteor Lake as a future architecture, they said it would be between 5W TDP and 125W TDP. Experience with previous versions tells us that this is not the case and that Intel was forced to show different variants of the chip. Not only one for BGA designed for laptops, on the one hand, and on the other hand for a classic socket, but also within the variants soldered to the plate, those designed for different degrees of consumption and heat generated.

Meteor Lake Hot Chips

Now, the desktop version of Meteor Lake-S might have been canceled because it wasn’t a big enough jump from the Raptor Lake revision they’re planning for next year. At the moment the only compute tile Intel has shown is the 6-core one, but absence of proof is not proof of absence and Intel may have decided not to show it. Imagine for a moment what would happen if the generational leap from Intel Core 13 to 14 was smaller than expected. That’s why Pat Gelsinger and his team would have let this architecture come out only for laptops.

In any case, and finally, we wonder if Intel will do the trick by selling the improved version of Raptor Lake as a fourteenth generation or, on the contrary, it will happen as the eleventh, where Tiger Lake and Rocket Lake were d different architectures and came with a year-to-year difference.

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