The Intel CPU architecture that was never meant to be is now a processor generation that is no longer meant to be. Intel has put the cap on Rocket Lake (open in new tab), also known as the 11th generation Core processors. These processors, in their entirety, have officially moved to EOL, or end-of-life, status.

Not surprisingly, Intel's 400 and 500 series chipsets that support Rocket Lake CPUs are just getting into the game; supply of Rocket Lake CPUs will not stop immediately. Final orders are being placed now, and the remaining chips will be supplied through the system. However, Rocket Lake is officially on notice.

Lest you forget, Rocket Lake was a strange beast. Manufactured at the then-ancient 14nm node and culminating in the Core i9 11900K (open in new tab), Rocket Lake was originally a back port of the architecture for 10nm, by Intel's own admission. However, the catastrophically delayed launch of 10nm forced Intel to cheat on Rocket Lake with 14nm.

The result was a chip with a modest improvement in IPC and performance per clock over its Comet Lake predecessor (open in new tab), but also a CPU architecture with a clear problem: power consumption. process nodes, which led to distinctly inefficient cores. This is undoubtedly the reason why this architecture was reserved for desktops and not adopted for notebooks.

Rocket Lake's large number of backported cores is also why Intel reduced the maximum number of cores from Comet Lake's 10 cores to Rocket Lake's 8. Rocket Lake's cores were too large and consumed too much power, and the number of backported cores was reduced from 10 to 8.

Perhaps the remnants of Rocket Lake's backported features can still be found in today's 13th generation Raptor Lake CPUs (open in new tab) built on 10nm technology, now renamed Intel 7. When running all-core workloads, these chips are still very power hungry, perhaps reflecting the fact that Intel originally expected to be manufacturing chips at 7nm, or even 4nm by now.

In any case, Rocket Lake was not a disaster, but it did represent Intel's broader struggles in chip manufacturing technology. If you're looking to buy a Rocket Lake CPU, perhaps as a drop-in upgrade for your existing PC, you'd better put on your skates. The clock is ticking on Intel's CPU architecture.