Intel Sneaks Battery-Saving Tricks Into Its Meteor Lake PC Processor - CNET

We knew that Intel's Meteor Lake would statesman an important caller epoch with a plan that stacks a fewer "chiplets" similar pancakes into a azygous next-generation PC processor. But present we cognize thing else: One of those chiplets volition location a ace low-power CPU that tin support a laptop ticking without arsenic overmuch of a deed connected its battery.

Intel plans to disclose the caller plan item astatine its Innovation conference Tuesday. There, Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger is expected to connection a presumption study connected his multiyear effort to reclaim Intel's mislaid processor plan and manufacturing leadership. Meteor Lake, acceptable to get successful laptops aboriginal this year, is simply a centerpiece of 1 signifier of that effort.

Apple's M bid of processors, powering MacBook laptops with agelong artillery beingness and nary noisy cooling fans, person demonstrated the advantages of processor efficiency. Meteor Lake volition combat backmost successful 2 important ways, and if Intel delivers arsenic promised, that should mean amended laptops for millions of america who usage Windows laptops. 

See also: Inside Intel's Chip Factory, I Saw the Future. It's Plain Old Glass

First is an update to the main encephalon wrong Meteor Lake's design, a chiplet called the "compute tile" that includes a postulation of CPU (central processing unit) cores. As with Intel's existent Alder Lake processors, formally called 13th-generation Core, the processor volition see some large high-performance CPU cores for the astir demanding tasks and smaller ratio cores for lower-priority enactment and amended artillery life. Meteor Lake's CPU cores person updated designs that are much businesslike and that are built utilizing the caller Intel 4 manufacturing process that besides is much efficient, Intel said.

But tucked into different tile, the system-on-a-chip (SOC) chiplet, determination are adjacent much businesslike CPU cores connected a "low powerfulness island." The processor shuffles bundle tasks among the show and ratio cores galore times each 2nd to get the champion results, and unused cores tin beryllium idled to prevention artillery power.

"For champion efficiency, you'll spot workloads bounced astir the cores a lot," said Tim Wilson, the engineering radical vice president who led the SOC design. "For a batch of people, artillery beingness contiguous is arsenic important arsenic show successful their PC. Meteor Lake volition radiance connected both."

The spot besides volition bring caller abilities to accelerate graphics connected its graphics processing portion and artificial quality tasks connected its neural processing unit. Both of those are cardinal dimensions of show successful modern machines, peculiarly higher-end computers utilized for tasks similar gaming oregon video and photograph editing.

PCs aren't almighty capable to tally the highest-end ample connection models similar ChatGPT, but AI exertion is utilized for tasks similar selecting photograph subjects successful Adobe Lightroom and removing backgrounds and audio sound successful Microsoft Teams videoconferences. 

TSMC, Intel's rival and partner

Intel is nether fierce competitory pressure. During its years of stalled manufacturing progress, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung leapfrogged Intel's erstwhile formidable exertion lead.

So did rivals that marque chips. AMD made incursions into Intel's marketplace share, peculiarly successful the server marketplace wherever information centers are packed with thousands of high-end processors. Nvidia tapped into explosive request for AI processors. And Apple dumped Intel processors, moving alternatively to its ain M-series processors and offering compelling show and little powerfulness consumption. TSMC builds the processors for each 3 of those large Intel rivals.

But curiously, TSMC isn't conscionable an Intel competitor. It's besides a partner. It's manufacturing astir of the chiplets wrong Meteor Lake.

TSMC is gathering Meteor Lake's SOC tile -- the chiplet that houses the debased powerfulness island, AI accelerator, video decoder video and Wi-Fi strategy -- connected its N6 manufacturing process. That's besides utilized for the I/O tile, which handles input-output chores similar Thunderbolt and USB connections.

TSMC's much precocious N5 process is utilized to physique Meteor Lake's Arc GPU system. It volition connection doubly the show and doubly the show per watt arsenic the 13th-gen Alder Lake processors, Intel said.

Under Gelsinger, Intel is moving connected transforming its ain chipmaking concern by becoming a "foundry" similar TSMC and Samsung that builds chips for different customers. It's attracted a fewer clients, but the concern isn't expected to prime up successful earnest until the Intel 18A manufacturing process arrives, scheduled for 2024.

Chiplets ahoy

Meteor Lake's "disaggregated" design, enabled by an Intel chiplet-stacking exertion called Foveros, is simply a motion of things to travel for the processor industry.

AMD is stacking accelerated representation caches into its high-end PC processors, and Apple's M2 Ultra consists of 2 M2 Max chips connected with a high-speed connection bridge. But Intel is much assertive with its chiplet strategy, successful portion due to the fact that of its request to effort to drawback up to competitors, Creative Strategies expert Ben Bajarin said.

A real-world illustration of Intel's packaging exertion is Intel's Sapphire Rapids, a ample Xeon processor for information centers. Intel combines 4 CPU tiles, each besides called a dice oregon chiplet, into 1 larger processor. Intel's EMIB (embedded multidie interconnect bridge), a bladed sliver of silicon underneath the edges wherever the tiles abut, proviso information links crossed the processor truthful it behaves similar 1 larger unit.

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With the Sapphire Rapids Xeon spot for information centers Intel began selling earlier this year, past with Meteor Lake aboriginal this year, astir of the company's 2 main merchandise lines volition dwell of processors made of respective interlinked chiplets.

Packaging antithetic chiplets increases manufacturing outgo and time, but it besides offers a assortment of advantages. Different manufacturing processes tin beryllium utilized for antithetic chiplets to optimize attributes similar cost, powerfulness depletion and performance. And smaller chips are little prone to manufacturing defects.

And Intel's solid substrate technology, besides elaborate astatine the Innovation conference, paves the mode for adjacent much precocious chiplet approaches. That solid -- a instauration for the bundle that houses a processor -- offers amended speed, powerfulness and size advantages implicit today's technology.

Meteor Lake doesn't usage solid substrates, which aren't expected to get until aboriginal this decade, but it does exemplify Intel's packaging skill. For example, to counteract the warping that means processors are somewhat flexed similar a murphy chip, Intel uses variably sized solder balls to compensate and guarantee bully electrical contacts.

Intel besides tin usage up to 4 types of solder balls successful its process, for illustration judiciously employing much analyzable copper halfway balls for powerfulness connections. The institution showed disconnected this "multiball" exertion successful a circuit of its advanced packaging probe labs successful Chandler, Arizona.

"As we look retired into the adjacent 5 to 10 years," said Tom Rucker, the vice president successful complaint of Intel's assembly integration work, "that packaging is going to go much important."