Before May 1st, in addition to releasing regular earnings reports, Intel also introduced the status of one of their most important upcoming products, Meteor Lake. Intel's first chiplet/tile-based SoC completed preliminary development last year, and has now completed power-on testing. The news isn't unexpected, but it's still a notable milestone for Intel, and important proof that both the Meteor Lake and Intel 4 processes are still on track.
Meteor Lake is planned to be the basis for Intel's 14th-generation Core processors in 2023, which is an important chip for Intel on many levels. In terms of design, it's the company's first mass-market client SoC based on chiplets (or "split" as Intel likes to call it). Intel's core product roadmap shows the company using chiplet-style SoCs forever, so Meteor Lake is very important to Intel's design and architecture teams, as this will be their first crack at client-side chiplets -- and to demonstrate whether they can complete it successfully.
Meteor Lake is also the first client part based on the Intel 4 process, formerly known as Intel's 7nm process. Intel 4 will mark Intel's long-awaited (and long-delayed) transition to the use of EUV in graphics technology, one of the most significant changes to Intel's chip technology since Intel adopted FinFET technology 10 years ago. Given the fab issues Intel has faced over the past few years, the company is eager to show that its fab development cycle is back on track and that they will achieve previously announced manufacturing milestones.
As for this boot announcement, this is in line with Intel's earlier expectations. At the company's 2022 investor conference in February, Intel said when customers presented the roadmap that they aimed to launch in Q2'22.
In fact, Intel seems to have slightly exceeded their own goals. While Michelle Johnston Holthaus, recently appointed executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Client Computing Group, posted a tweet announcing that Meteor Lake was up, comments from CEO Pat Gelsinger suggest that Meteor Lake is doing even better. Meteor Lake is also capable of booting Windows, Chrome and Linux, according to Gelsinger's comments on the earnings call. So, while development is still a few months away, Meteor Lake development appears to be progressing rapidly.
But that will be the story of 2023. Intel will launch Raptor Lake first in the second half of this year. The next generation of Alder Lake is built on the same Intel 7 process as Alder Lake itself, and will feature an enhanced version of the Alder Lake architecture.
