Intel has unveiled the 14th generation of its CPU architecture, dubbed Meteor Lake, aka the “Core Ultra,” built on the 7nm “Intel 4” node, which arrives December 14. This is the first time Intel has integrated a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) within its CPU, which should offer accelerated AI performance. In addition to a built-in NPU, the Meteor Lake also integrates Intel’s Arc graphics, among other improvements.
Intel introduced a new naming convention in 2021, moving away from “nm” and aligning with other foundries. Intel 4 is the 7nm node, which the chipmaker says marks the paradigm shift architectural shift in 40 years, delivering unprecedented chip efficiency.
New chiplet design to make Intel’s new CPU power-efficient
It uses a tiled, disaggregated chipset design with Foveros packaging to optimise performance and energy efficiency. Meteor Lake comprises four tiles, including the compute tile built on Intel 4 and the graphics tile made on TSMC’s N5 node.
The Meteor Lake architecture comprises six Redwood Cove P cores and eight Crestmont E cores, which are based on Alder Lake and Raptor Lake and built on the new Intel 4 process. Moreover, Intel has partitioned the compute-intensive IP cores and added them independently to the SoC fabric, which optimises the power management of the chip.
To increase efficiency and save power, Intel has added two additional low-power cores outside of the Compute tile for background tasks. This allows the Compute tile to be disabled completely in certain conditions, resulting in lower power consumption than Alder Lake and Raptor Lake.
Intel’s Meteor Lake design will have changes to the GPU tile as the Media and Display engines will be included as part of the SoC tile. This redesign of memory connections will allow for the option to disable components separately.
The Intel Thread Director has also undergone a complete overhaul for CPU scheduling.
The architecture’s modular approach enables each tile to function independently, prioritising performance and power efficiency. Additionally, it allows Intel to select specific silicon processes for each tile, reducing manufacturing costs.
Intel has also separated the “Media” tile from the graphics “Graphics,” which frees the graphics unit of all the video encoding and decoding, as Intel explains that this can be done without relying on GPU shaders, citing hardware support for the AV1 film grain feature. The SoC tile offers native HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1 support, with either 8K HDR video or up to four 4K monitors simultaneously. Additionally, it provides Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7, which can theoretically offer transfer speeds of up to 5.76Gbps.
Intel integrates Arc within its new CPU
The new “Graphics tile” called “Xe LPG,” replaces the previous Iris Xe LP solution. The now integrated graphics, which is based on Intel’s Arc graphics, offers improved performance, with the maximum number of Executive Units (EUs) increased from 96 to 128. Intel promises twice as much “Performance per Watt” compared with Tiger Lake, thanks to the new “Graphics tile.” Meteor Lake also introduces eight Ray tracing units and Intel XeSS.
Integrated AI acceleration unit, a first for Intel CPUs
Intel’s Core Ultra features an integrated neural processing unit (NPU), a first for Intel, enabling power-efficient AI acceleration and local inference on the PC. The NPU is designed for low power and high quality, providing new and exciting PC experiences. Moreover, Core Ultra’s disaggregated architecture balances performance and power across AI-driven tasks, with the GPU ideal for AI-infused media, 3D applications, and the render pipeline, the NPU for sustained AI and AI offload, and the CPU for low-latency AI tasks.
That’s all we know of Intel’s Core Ultra. The new CPUs should hit the market later this year with the new batch of PCs, notebooks, and devices with a variety of form factor.