Intel's next-generation Meteor Lake & Arrow Lake Desktop CPUs will be utilizing the brand new LGA 1851 socket as opposed to the LGA 2551 socket that was rumored a few days ago.
Intel LGA 1851 Socket To Feature Support For Meteor Lake & Arrow Lake Desktop CPUs
The latest information on the LGA 1851 socket designed around the Intel Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake CPUs comes from Benchlife. A few days ago, it was reported that Intel could be using a brand new socket for its next-generation desktop CPUs. While it is true that there will be a new socket to replace the existing LGA 1700/1800 design, it won't be the rumored 'LGA 2551' instead, it will be the Socket V1 with 1851 LGA contact pads.
The Intel Socket V1 which is the codename for the new LGA 1851 socket confirms that the next-gen desktop offerings will feature only 51 additional contact pads compared to the existing CPUs. This means that while the socket will feature a higher number of pins, the overall package size will be similar to the existing socket. The Socket V1 will measure 45 x 37.5mm which means that existing coolers will have no problem in terms of compatibility with next-gen Intel Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake CPUs.
However, at the same time, the IHS to MB height will see a slight increase from 6.73-7.4mm to 6.83-7.49mm. While this is a relatively small height change, it will mean that mounting pressures for CPU coolers will have to be adjusted to conform with the new standard. The Socket V1 will retain the 0.8 mm pin pitch and with new mounting brackets, you can certainly reuse your existing coolers. As for the LGA 2551 socket design, it looked like it was mostly a BGA prototype platform which may land in for some other consumer chip but desktops will definitely not be using that as confirmed within this report.
With that said, the story is more or less the same as last time that the 14th Gen Meteor Lake and 15th Gen Arrow Lake CPUs will require a new socket but now we know that the actual Socket will be known as V1 with 1851 contact pads.
Intel 14th Gen Meteor Lake CPUs: Intel 4 Process Node, Tiled Arc GPU Design, Hybrid Cores, 2023 Launch To Tackle Zen 5
The 14th Gen Meteor Lake CPUs are going to be a gamer changer in the sense that they will adopt a brand new tiled architecture approach. Based on the 'Intel 4' process node, the new CPUs will be offering a 20% improvement in performance per watt through EUV technology and are set to tape out by 2H 2022 (manufacturing-ready). The first Meteor Lake CPUs are scheduled to ship out by 1H 2023 and availability is expected later the same year. The desktop parts are rumored to hit shelves by the second half of 2023 and will tackle AMD's Zen 5 CPUs by the time they launch.
According to Intel, the 14th Gen Meteor Lake CPUs will feature a brand new tiled architecture and what this basically means is that the company has decided to go full-on chiplet. There are 4 main tiles on the Meteor Lake CPUs. There's the IO Tile, the SOC Tile, the GFX Tile & the Compute Tile. The Compute Tile comprises the CPU Tile and GFX Tile. The CPU Tile will be making use of a new hybrid core design consisting of Redwood Cove P-Cores and Crestmont E-Cores, delivering higher-performance throughput at lower power while the graphics tile will be unlike anything we have seen before. The CPUs will scale from 5 to 125W which is from ultra-low TDP mobile to high-end desktop PCs.
As Raja Koduri states, the Meteor Lake CPUs will be utilizing a tiled Arc graphics-powered GPU which will make it an entirely new class of graphics on a chip. It's neither an iGPU nor a dGPU & currently regarded as tGPU (Tiled GPU / Next-Gen Graphics Engine). The Meteor Lake CPUs will utilize the brand new Xe-HPG graphics architecture, allowing for increased performance at the same level of power efficiency as existing integrated GPUs. This will also enable enhanced support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and XeSS, features that are only supported by the Alchemist lineup as of right now.
Intel 15th Gen Arrow Lake CPUs: Intel 20A Process Node, Brand New Lion Cove Core 'Possible Jim Keller Design' & Competing Against Zen 6
The follow-up to Meteor Lake is Arrow Lake and the 15th Gen lineup brings with it a lot of changes. While it would be socket compatible with whatever Meteor Lake lands on, the Redwood Cove cores and Crestmont cores will be upgraded to the brand-new Lion Cove and Skymont cores. These are expected to bring a major advantage with the uplifted core counts which are expected to be 40/48 on the new SKUs (8 P-Cores + 32 E-Cores).
A previous leak had confirmed the desktop 'K' series mainstream parts. The performance is said to achieve parity with AMD and Apple processors which would mean that these would offer a double-digit gain. There's no information regarding the GFX Tile but it should either feature an updated architecture or increased Xe cores. The I/O tile will be fused with Neural Engines (VPU), similar to the ones on Meteor Lake, which will utilize low-power Atom cores.
Surprisingly, Intel would skip its 'Intel 4' node and jump directly to 20A for the Arrow Lake CPUs. One thing that's true for both Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake chips is that they will retain their N3 (TSMC) process node for additional core IPs, presumably the Arc GPU cores. The Intel 20A node delivers a 15% improvement in performance per watt, utilizing next-gen RibbonFET & PowerVia tech, and is scheduled to have the first IP test wafers running in fabs by the second half of 2022.
So it looks like for mobility at least, Intel would be going the more efficient route as they will utilize a fraction of the full core configuration that the desktop chips will get. Also, there will be a four-chiplet design for Arrow Lake, the same as Meteor Lake but with more cores and IO features. The 20A process node itself will bring a 15% improvement in performance per watt and introduce RibbonFET & PowerVia tech to the table.
Intel Mainstream CPU Generations Comparison:
| Intel CPU Family | Processor Process | Processor Architecture | Graphics Architecture | Processors Cores/Threads (Max) | Platform | Memory Support | PCIe Support | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Lake (12th Gen) | Intel 7 | Golden Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 16/24 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2021 |
| Raptor Lake (13th Gen) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2022 |
| Raptor Lake Refresh (TBA) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2023 |
| Meteor Lake | Intel 4 | Redwood Cove (P-Core) Crestmont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 22/28 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Arrow Lake | Intel 20A | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 24/32 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Arrow Lake Refresh (TBA) | Intel 20A | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | TBD | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2025 |
| Lunar Lake | Intel 18A | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe2 (Battlemage) | 8/8? | LGA 1851? | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2025 |
| Panther Lake (TBA) | Intel 18A | Cougar Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe3 (Celestial) | TBD | LGA 1851? | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 6.0? | 2026 |
| Nova Lake (TBA) | TBA | TBD | TBA | TBA | TBA | DDR5? | PCIe Gen 6.0? | 2026 |
| Adams Lake (TBA) | TBA | Douglas Cove (P-Core) | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | 2026-2027? |
With that said, Intel is expected to disclose new details on its 14th Gen Meteor Lake and 15th Gen Arrow Lake CPUs at HotChip34 in August so we will be getting a bit more information regarding the next-gen chip lineup from team Blue.
