Intel's 14th Generation Core series set to be released this year includes codenamed Meteor Lake processors for laptops and codenamed Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs for desktops. The exact reason why Intel decided to release its codenamed Meteor Lake processors only for notebooks this year is unknown. Still, this product is coming to desktops, the company said.
"[Meteor Lake] desktop will come in 2024," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Client Computing Group at Intel, in an interview with PCWorld's Mark Hachman. "I want one processor family top to bottom for both segments, doesn't everybody?
But what do we know about Intel's Meteor Lake-S so far? Not much.
We may speculate that Intel's Meteor Lake-S CPUs will share up to six high-performance cores up to N energy-efficient cores, but this is about it. Such a configuration is good enough for compact desktops, but it will hardly cater to the demands of gaming enthusiasts.
Meanwhile, Meteor Lake-S and Arrow Lake-S processors are expected to share the alleged Socket V1 (for LGA1851 CPUs) and 800-series chipset platform. Mainboards developed for Arrow Lake-S, which will exist in Core i7 and Core i9 variants for gamers and enthusiasts, are poised to offer sophisticated voltage regulating modules to provide maximum performance and will cost accordingly. The question is whether advanced 800-series motherboards will ever be needed for Meteor Lake-S CPUs in the alleged configuration.
Intel's Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake processors are set to mark the company's foray into multi-tile architectures for clients. While Meteor Lake will be based on the Intel 4 node with a focus on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, Arrow Lake will utilize a 2nm-class Intel 20A process. Both will likely feature graphics tiles made on TSMC's N3E technology. The standout feature of the Intel 20A process is its integration of RibbonFET transistors and PowerVia power delivery aimed at enhancing performance, which enthusiast-grade CPUs will particularly welcome.
