![]() ![]() Intel is the last company that needs delayed products, especially after the struggles it’s had with its Arc GPU line. The thing I most worry about with Meteor Lake is another delay. CPUs designed like Meteor Lake are vulnerable to delays At the very least, using four different dies (two of which use cutting-edge nodes anyways) is undoubtedly more expensive than using two, as AMD does in its CPUs. Intel says this design philosophy is cheaper than monolithic designs and bypasses the issue of needing to use expensive cutting edge processes for the entire CPU, but I’m not convinced. AMD already mastered this aspect of chiplets in 2019, and Intel has had every opportunity to follow suit. That Intel isn’t pursuing a more efficient way to use less nodes and make less dies is baffling to me. #M puzzle maker plusIn 2023, AMD looks to be planning to have three chiplets plus one or two monolithic APUs. Intel might need to deploy as many as a dozen different chiplets to cover the entire CPU market in 2023, nine of which are for Meteor Lake alone. But this is just desktop and laptops we’re talking about, which means Intel is also making different dies for servers and high-end desktops. Intel wants to harness chiplets to make its CPUs extremely modular and customizable, but that doesn’t seem superior to AMD’s approach.Īccording to Intel, of Meteor Lake’s four different dies, only the IO and SOC dies will be reused and only in Arrow Lake, which will come with new CPU and GPU chiplets. The double whammy for Meteor Lake’s financial prospects is the fact that Intel has no plans to use any of Meteor Lake’s four dies in different segments, which misses one of the key benefits of using chiplets. Speaking of other markets, that is also a key weakness in Intel’s strategy. Dies that can’t be adapted to other markets ![]() When tech is overly expensive to make, we’re often left wondering what the company will need to do to make it a profitable product in the end. Meteor Lake is more complex, but the gains don’t seem worth it.Īll that gives me concerns about the economic viability of manufacturing these chips. Granted, the graphics capabilities of AMD’s new CPU (or APU) won’t be particularly great, but it makes sense for its intended use. The upcoming Ryzen 7000 chiplet-based CPUs on the other hand combine all of these into a single die, which allows for desktop Ryzen CPUs to be used for the mobile market in the form of Dragon Range. For example, Meteor Lake has separate dies for its graphics, IO, and SOC functions. AMD also has its two current-generation 7nm APU dies, which are monolithic and not chiplet based.ĪMD has accomplished this level of simplicity by combining many functions into a single die. This is spread out across three dies: the 7nm CPU die, the 12nm desktop IO die, and the 12nm server IO die. Its entire CPU portfolio uses just two nodes: TSMC 7nm’s and GlobalFoundries’s 12nm. The cost of making lots of different chiplets is multiplied by the usage of different nodes, which requires Intel’s engineers to be familiar with far more nodes than ever before.ĪMD’s approach could not be more different. Rather than developing and refining a single chip, Intel is having to test several pieces of silicon, and each one could be on a different process. While this is certainly a good idea for designing a processor that is perfectly designed for its intended use case, it’s also very expensive. Why so many nodes? Well, Intel has taken a “mix and match” approach to chiplets, and wants to use many dies for processors to achieve maximum customization. The CPU die uses the cutting-edge Intel 4 process, and according to Tom’s Hardware, the GPU uses TSMC’s cutting-edge 5nm, the IO and SOC dies use TSMC’s 6nm, and the Foveros interposer uses Intel’s old 22nm. The Meteor Lake chip Intel showed off at Hot Chips uses no less than four different nodes, which is a staggering number for a simple mainstream chip. ![]() Intel is finally taking notes with Meteor Lake, but its approach to using chiplets couldn’t be more different from AMD’s.Ī node or process is how a processor is manufactured, and it’s a critical component to a CPU’s performance and cost of production. Meteor Lake uses too many different nodes and dies WccftechĪMD has been wielding chiplet technology against Intel to great success for years now. What I am worried about is how these chips are being developed and manufactured. Meteor Lake, or Intel 14th-gen, is still more than a year out, so it’d be silly of me to worry about performance. CPUs designed like Meteor Lake are vulnerable to delays.Dies that can’t be adapted to other markets. ![]()
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