Next month Intel will release the 13th generation Core Raptor Lake, which is an improved version of the 12th generation Core, with little architectural and process changes, and next year’s 14th generation Core Meteor Lake is the heavy upgrade. Unlike the previous Cores, the 14th generation Core will not only upgrade the architecture and process but also have revolutionary progress in packaging. It adopts multi-chip integrated packaging for the first time, with CPU, core graphics, input and output being independent of each other, and the manufacturing process is also different.
So how are the individual units of the 14th generation Core all put together? At the hotchips 34 conferences, Intel announced the specific process for each of the Meteor Lake modules, as follows.
Meteor Lake’s CPU Tile module is produced by Intel 4 process, which is Intel’s first EUV process. From the schematic shown, this 14th generation Core processor is composed of 6P+8E.
The left side of the CPU module is the IOE Tile, which is the IO module previously mentioned, and is manufactured by TSMC’s 6nm process, while there is also a SoC Tile in the middle using TSMC’s 6nm process.
Graphics Tile, also known as the GPU module, is based on TSMC’s 5nm process. The roadmap announced by Intel in February shows that there is a TSMC 3nm process manufacturing, however, the news that Intel canceled most of the 3nm orders came out before, and now it can be confirmed that there is no possibility of debuting TSMC 3nm on the 14th generation Core.
Although the 14 generation Core is mainly the above four modules, but it actually has a Base Tile, this part is using Intel’s 22FFL, that is, 22nm process manufacturing, which is the basis of Intel Foveros packaging technology, and does not affect the processor performance, with 22nm process also has no impact.
The above chart is a labeled version made by the Japanese website PCwatch, which can more clearly see the composition and process level of the 5 modules of the 14th generation Core, with Intel’s own production having mainly 2 parts and TSMC’s foundry accounting for 3 modules.
