Intel’s Core Ultra 200S CPUs are its biggest desktop refresh in three years

Intel’s 14th-generation desktop processors had been a gentle replace on prime of a gentle replace: a barely quicker revision of the Thirteenth-gen Core CPUs, which had been themselves a modest tweak to 2021’s Twelfth-gen Core processors. The brand new Core Extremely CPUs (and their underlying architectural adjustments) had been unique to laptops.

Immediately, that adjustments: The Core Extremely 200S processors (codenamed Arrow Lake) will carry to desktops most of the adjustments Intel has made to its Core Extremely 100- and 200-series laptop computer CPUs (Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake, respectively). Modifications embody a brand new chiplet-based design, new manufacturing applied sciences, up to date CPU and GPU architectures, and a neural processing unit (NPU) for accelerating some AI and machine studying workloads.

All the new processors launch on October twenty fourth.

As with the Lunar Lake-based laptop computer chips, Intel has stated that energy effectivity is a giant focus for Arrow Lake—a welcome change after seeing how a lot energy the Thirteenth- and 14th-generation CPUs might eat once they had been allowed. But in addition as with the laptop computer processors, the Core Extremely desktop CPUs aren’t all the time a simple efficiency improve from their predecessors—they’re normally quicker, however how a lot quicker relies upon lots on what you are asking them to do, a minimum of in response to the Intel-provided efficiency figures.

Meet Arrow Lake

Pricing stays broadly much like the 14th-generation CPUs once they launched (it is usually down just a few {dollars}, if something).

Intel

Pricing stays broadly much like the 14th-generation CPUs once they launched (it is usually down just a few {dollars}, if something).

Intel

Arrow Lake brings Intel’s chiplet-based CPU designs to desktops for the primary time.

Intel

Arrow Lake brings Intel’s chiplet-based CPU designs to desktops for the primary time.

Intel

An Arrow Lake P-core and E-core overview.

Intel

An Arrow Lake P-core and E-core overview.

Intel

Arrow Lake brings Intel’s chiplet-based CPU designs to desktops for the primary time.

Intel

An Arrow Lake P-core and E-core overview.

Intel

An outline of the high-level options of the brand new Lion Cove P-cores.

Intel

An outline of the options of the brand new Skymont E-cores.

Intel

The large under-the-hood change to Arrow Lake is that it shifts to a chiplet-based design, the place a number of silicon dies are sure collectively utilizing Intel’s Foveros packaging know-how. Foveros makes use of an Intel-manufactured “base tile” as an interconnect, permitting for communication between 4 TSMC-manufactured tiles: a compute tile for the CPU cores; a GPU tile for the graphics cores; an SoC tile that features the NPU, video encoding and decoding blocks, and show outputs; and an I/O tile that primarily handles the DDR5 reminiscence controller (Core Extremely 200S not helps DDR4, following AMD’s lead).

Just like the Lunar Lake laptop computer chips, Arrow Lake can be an Intel-designed processor the place many of the silicon will not really be made in Intel’s factories, other than the bottom tile. The compute tile is manufactured on a 3 nm TSMC course of, the GPU is a 5 nm TSMC course of, and each the SoC and I/O tiles use a 6 nm course of.