Affected by the sluggish PC market, Intel, which lost $5 billion last quarter, reported rather crotchety results. However, yesterday, the market revealed even worse news. According to rumors cited by TrendForce, Intel’s 14th generation Meteor Lake processors may be delayed by a year and will not be officially launched until 2024. For reference, at an investor conference in February, Intel said it would “launch” this summer and ship in 2023.
However, Intel quickly and categorically denied the rumors. Spokesman Thomas Hannaford clarified to The Verge that not only were the rumors false, but that Meteor Lake would be ready for the consumer market in 2023.
"A major milestone in the company's development over the years, it is not only the first Intel 4 (7nm) process, but also Intel's first use of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) for client processors, with high expectations for 'small chip' design. Intel has previously mixed Golden Cove high-performance + Gracemont energy-efficient cores on the 12th generation Alder Lake platform, but it's not essentially the same thing as a smartphone SoC."
For those who followed Intel’s 2022 Q2 earnings call, however, the idea that “Meteor Lake is still on track” didn’t surprise us.
"At the time, Intel CEO Pat Kissinger told investors bluntly that the company would be ready to deliver Meteor Lake in 2023. And said the series of chips have shown good health both internally and in customers' labs, and have been widely sampled to customers."
Although “prototype to customers” is not exactly equal to “good consumer release”, but at least now Intel has clearly mentioned this point.
"Previously TrendForce reported that Intel would not even begin mass production of key Meteor Lake components until late 2023. Rumors suggest that this event has had a significant impact on TSMC's expansion plans, but the chip foundry giant has not commented on this, only denying it in a statement to the press."
Finally, on the 2022 Q2 earnings call, Intel said that shipments of 12th generation Alder Lake chips have exceeded 35 million.
As for how the 13th generation Raptor Lake Core product line will perform, please wait patiently for the official announcement later this year.
