Behind the code name for the processor family that will arrive beyond 2025 is a plan for a comprehensive upgrade, with an emphasis on performance under a low power envelope
The generation of Raptor Lake processors is still busy settling on the shelves, but throughout the network the talk about the next generation, the next generation after that and even the generation after that is already underway – when it is precisely the intended 16th Core generation (assuming that Intel decides to keep the current brand without doing a full makeover) is the one garnering the most interest right now, even though we have at least another two years until we see it officially available in stores.
We already know that in 2023 we are expecting a refresh of the current Raptor Lake generation for desktop computers, alongside the launch of the next Meteor Lake generation which is based on a new Intel 4 production process – with 6 P cores and another 16 P cores in its most advanced configuration , which will limit the practical availability for the mobile world and the desktop world to Core i7 models, while Core i9 models will continue to be based on Raptor Lake throughout the period. Arrow Lake models that will follow may return the maximum number of desktop processing cores to the familiar 24, with 8 P cores and another 16 E cores, during the second half of 2024 – but with uncertainty regarding the manufacturing technology for the cores, which according to some rumors will be dual and will be based on N3 or N3P from TSMC in the stationary market alongside the new and advanced Intel 20A process in the mobile market.
According to a tweet by Ian Cutters, the popular hardware consultant who used to be a writer on the Anandtech website, the director of the home products division at Intel confirmed that the generation of chips bearing the code name Lunar Lake, the one that succeeded Arrow Lake, will be based on an architecture that is built from scratch, with an emphasis on efficiency Optimum operation in terms of performance per watt of power consumed – and an emphasis on cost-effective mobile products as the main point of improvement.
What does the poet mean by a platform that is designed from the ground up, in the days when Intel intends to return to offering improved architectures for its processing cores in each generation? This question arose quickly among the respondents, of course, and was even addressed – the meaning is that the planners are given a free hand to replace all the technical assemblies that make up the product, without the obligation to recycle and use existing assemblies unless they choose to do so.
This issue is expected to be absolutely relevant within the framework of Intel’s new philosophy, which is similar to that of AMD and is based on the use of several different chips (for the main processing cores, the built-in graphics core, for the external interfaces component, etc.) from diverse production processes on a single platform to create each processor In a more flexible way, with the potential to increase the outputs from the manufacturing plants compared to chips where all the blocks are produced together on the same physical wafer.
Does this mean that even in the Lunar Lake generation we can see a refresh instead of a renewal for the variant with the largest number of processing cores, in order to devote the most resources and attention to improvements for the cost-effective variants for mobile models, as part of the expected transition to a new (additional) Intel A18 type production process? New details may arrive during the coming week, as part of the announcement of the chip maker’s quarterly financial results.