Intel’s first chiplet processor, Meteor Lake, may now be delayed until 2024
For Intel’s Patty G, things seem to be getting worse. When he took over, everything looked very promising, putting engineering first and focusing on making sure it did everything it said it would. Recently, however, the first discrete graphics cards in Intel’s history still haven’t really seen the light of day, and more than a year since we first expected them, its server-side Sapphire Rapids chips have been delayed again and are now looking like shooting stars The lake was pushed back again.
Maybe Intel should stop giving a vague release window. Just do the Valve-time thing, “When it’s ready, it’s ready, okay?”
Meteor Lake is the expected 14th Gen Core CPU generation following this year’s Raptor Lake update to Alder Lake. Far from being an incremental chip update, however, Meteor Lake is another fundamental change in Intel’s processor design. In addition to using the new Intel 4 process (the name of its 7nm lithography technology), it will be Intel’s first chiplet CPU.
It also sets up a vastly improved Arc GPU, which Raja Koduri calls “a new class of graphics”, (opens in new tab) as part of its multichip package. This is where the latest delayed exposure comes in.Intel is using TSMC’s 3nm process to make graphics components for Meteor Lake because it uses TSMC for the rest of the GPU production, but the new TrendForce Consulting Report (opens in new tab) (pass hardware information (opens in new tab)) said it has now delayed TSMC’s chip mass production until the end of 2023.
When Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger first introduced a new naming scheme for its future production process, he talked about Intel 4, which introduces 7nm lithography for 2023 products including Meteor Lake and Granite Rapids. It will begin mass production this year, with a full release the following year. Then it was reportedly pushed back to early 2023, with this latest news further delaying mass production.
This suggests that an actual consumer version of Meteor Lake may not happen until sometime in 2024. Possibly a year later than originally planned.
It looks so good it’s unbelievable.
There is no indication as to why the production schedule for the GPU components was delayed again, but the initial delay was reportedly due to product design and process validation issues. The complexity of creating complex chiplet designs on a new process could cause problems within Intel, probably not beyond the realm of possibility.
It’s a shame, because as recently as June, Intel has been making big promises for Meteor Lake, saying it will offer 20% higher frequencies (opens in new tab) Same power level as the current Alder Lake design.
None of this has helped consumer or investor confidence in Intel, whose recent poor financial performance has shaken Intel’s confidence again (opens in new tab). Gelsinger is there to push to focus on delivery, just as AMD has been sticking to its production schedule, delivering generations of Zen architecture on time and making real improvements. For dear old Patty G, however, this was not the case.