Intel's CPU roadmap seems to be solidifying before our eyes. Or, it looks more confusing. I'm not 100% sure at this point, but according to new rumors, the new series of desktop chips coming out in early 2024 should be Arrow Lake.

I know, another Lake, and a treasure trove of codenames that even I, a sane person, should keep locked away in my head, Arrow Lake is the theoretical successor to Meteor Lake and Intel's future superstar, the first manufactured at the 20A production node. compute tile.

Meteor Lake itself is Intel's first chiplet processor, but the company has stuck with the "tile" designation instead. The new processor will be manufactured on the Intel 4 node (nominally the 7nm node) and is due later this year, as Intel promises that Meteor Lake is still on track (opens in new tab). However, it definitely does not appear to be on desktops at the moment. [The latest information reported by Benchlife (opens in new tab) claims that the Meteor Lake-S chip for desktops with six performance cores and 16 Efficient cores will be cancelled in favor of Arrow Lake.

We have long argued that the Meteor Lake 6 + 16 design must be primarily for mobile (open in new tab), and this latest rumor seems to give credence to that assumption.

Instead of Meteor Lake, Intel plans to bring Arrow Lake chips to desktops in the first half of 2024, with the maximum configuration matching Raptor Lake's famous Core i9 13900K (open in new tab) and the current 8 + 16 limit.

This suggests that Arrow Lake appears to be launching sooner than previously expected and that the 20A process is much further along than we thought. That being the case, Pat Gelsinger's firm stance (open in new tab) on the recent delay rumors seems to be right on target.

"I feel we are turning the corner on a lot of execution issues," he said in response to a question about the delay rumors."

"These rumors, like many others, will be proven solidly false by our execution.

Intel has recently stated that once 20A development is complete (open in new tab), the chip could be manufactured in the first half of 2024. But honestly, it did not expect that to mean that high-performance desktop chips would soon be available to consumers in the first six months of this year.

The 20A process is important to Intel because it is the first RibbonFet design (also known as Gate All Around) and the first chip to use the new PowerVia backside power delivery system. It also promises to be an evolution of the Lion Cove performance core design, which can improve IPC by more than 20% over Meteor Lake, and could lead to some very exciting CPUs from Intel.

Being Intel, it is clear that a completely new motherboard will be required. The new chips will use the LGA 1851 socket, which has more pins than the current LGA 1700 with the Alder and Raptor Lake generations. These 800 series boards will offer a pure DDR5 platform, rather than the hybrid DDR4/5 configuration of the 600 and 700 series. It is also reported that they will offer more PCIe lanes, 48 lanes versus the 28 lanes of the latest Intel chipsets.

So Intel may be "on track" as promised. We have high hopes.