Intel Confirms Meteor Lake Desktop CPUs Coming in 2024
PC World's senior editor, Mark Hachman, managed to corner an important Team Blue staffer during this week's Innovation 2023 event, where Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" processors were presented in an official manner. This CPU family is set to arrive on December 14, but starting out only in mobile...
PC World's senior editor, Mark Hachman, managed to corner an important Team Blue staffer during this week's Innovation 2023 event, where Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" processors were presented in an official manner. This CPU family is set to arrive on December 14, but starting out only in mobile form—past leaks have yoyo-ed between rumored plans for desktop variants being alive or getting canned entirely. Michelle Johnston Holthaus—executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group at Intel Corporation—confirmed to PC World in a video interview that Meteor Lake desktop SKUs are scheduled for launch next year. She elaborated on this slightly surprising declaration: "I want one processor family top to bottom for both segments, doesn't everybody?"
Exact details regarding release timings were not disclosed, but previous leaks have indicated that the rest of Intel's 14th Gen Core/Raptor Lake Refresh desktop lineup is due in early 2024—a product launch of 65 W TDP-rated SKUs could coincide with CES 2024. A "Meteor Lake-S" desktop CPU series is speculated to be placed mid-year, while the Arrow Lake generation is believed to be slated for late 2024. Reports have suggested that Meteor Lake has been delayed numerous times due to developmental setbacks—a leaked presentation slide seemed to show MTL-S SKUs (on socket LGA1851) being limited to 35 and 65 W TDPs, thus restricting the range to Core i3 and i5 product lines. Intel's new naming scheme—for the Meteor Lake generation—will assign "Core Ultra 5" instead of "Core i5" if new models land in the "Premium" processor bracket. We are not entirely sure where the future equivalent to "Core i3" will stick in the lower-end hierarchy, but the revised naming system suggests that it will only exist within Intel's "Mainstream" tier—so just a plain "Core 3," without any mention of Ultra performance or feature set.
At Intel Innovation 2023, PC World's Mark Hachman asked Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Client Computing Group at Intel, how Meteor Lake will change things going forward for the company and what it means for future CPU releases.
Michelle Johnston Holthaus answered some key questions:Q: Let me ask you, is there gonna be a Meteor Lake desktop?
A: Desktop will come in 2024.
Q: So you are confirming Meteor Lake desktop?
A: Yes.
Q: Whether or not you guys are returning to an era where there's gonna be a processor family for mobile and a separate processor family for desktop, but it doesn't sound like that's the case.
A: That is not the case. I want one processor family top to bottom for both segments, doesn't everybody
