Intel's major next-generation processor families are on schedule in accordance with the company's previously released roadmaps, says chief executive Pat Gelsinger.
While Intel's disappointing Q4 FY2022 financial results were primarily a result of the weakening economy, datacenter product delays also plagued the company's bottom line. However, Gelsinger used the earnings call to reaffirm the company's roadmap and show that all the products are on track for release. On the client side, Intel's Meteor Lake is set to ramp in 2023, whereas Lunar Lake has completed its planned tape out. On the datacenter front, Emerald Rapids will start production this year, whereas its successor Granite Rapids is slated for 2024.
Client Side
Meteor Lake is an important milestone for Intel for two reasons: it is the company's first client CPU to rely on a disaggregated multi-tile design, and it is the first to use the Intel 4 process technology (aka 7nm), which is Intel's first node to use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The system-in-package will consist of four tiles: the compute tile (CPU cores), the graphics tile produced by TSMC (presumably using its N3 or N5 node), the SoC tile, and the I/O tile. The tiles are interconnected using Intel's Foveros 3D technology.
“On Intel 4, we are ready today for manufacturing and we look forward to the MTL (Meteor Lake) ramp in the second half of the year,” said Gelsinger.
For now, it is not completely clear whether Intel plans to release Meteor Lake into the desktop space, or leave it as a mobile-only product, something it did with Ice Lake and Tiger Lake a few years ago. Considering unofficial information about Raptor Lake-S Refresh for desktops, Meteor Lake may well remain a part for laptops and compact desktops, but Intel has yet to confirm this. Meanwhile, Intel will start production of Meteor Lake CPUs this year.
Intel's next disaggregated (multi-chiplet) design is codenamed Lunar Lake. It is based on a brand new microarchitecture (as we suspected last year) which Intel hopes will regain the performance-per-watt crown. The CPU completed its tape out in late 2022, as planned, so it is on track for "production readiness in 2024."
“With MTL progressing well, it is now appropriate to look forward to Lunar Lake, which is on track for production readiness in 2024, having taped-out its first silicon,” said the head of Intel. “Lunar Lake is optimized for ultra-low power performance, which will enable more of our PC partners to create ultra-thin and light systems for mobile users.”
Datacenter Side
Intel's 4th Generation Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids" for datacenters officially launched on January 10 and will be succeeded by Emerald Rapids processors. The CPU giant once said that Emerald Rapids was set to "compete" (i.e., hit the market) in 2023. However, Intel changed its tune late last year and said that the processor family will be mass-produced in 2023, with a release set for 2024. For now, there are no changes to Emerald Rapids plans.
Meanwhile, Intel's next-generation Xeon processors based on high-performance Granite Rapids cores and the company's first Xeon CPU powered by energy-efficient Sierra Forest cores are on track for 2024. However, it appears that Gelsinger is referring to production in 2024 rather than when the processors will actually launch.
“Emerald Rapids is sampling and has completed power-on with top OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and CSP customers, and it remains on track to launch in the second half of 2023,” said Gelsinger. “Granite Rapids, our next performance core addition to the Xeon portfolio is on track to launch in 2024, running multiple operating systems across many different configurations. Further, our first efficient-core product, Sierra Forrest, is also on on-track for 2024.”
