Intel Core Ultra Meteor Lake CPU Breaks Cover With 128MB Cache And Alchemist GPU

by Mark Tyson — Monday, June 26, 2023, 02:07 PM EDT

Thanks to a mix of official, semi-official, and leaked data, aspects of Intel’s Meteor Lake (MTL) processors and architecture are coming into sharper focus. A case in point is a Sisoft Sandra sysinfo tool leak this weekend, exposing details of an upcoming Meteor Lake-P (MTL-P) laptop chip with 128MB of L4 cache and a 64 EU Arc Alchemist iGPU.

Click to expand

128MB is a very sizable cache on a consumer processor. However, there are many aspects of the MTL design which we think will make it one of the most significant generational transitions in Intel CPU history. The MTL-P design which was dug out of the Sisoft Sandra database is targeted at performance tier laptops, and will lead the charge of the Core Ultra series based on Intel’s new branding terminology.

So, in addition to the 4MB of L2 cache devoted to the CPU block, this MTL-P chip has 128MB of L4 cache which other tiles on the chip will be able to access. We reported on this Adamantine (ADM) cache design back in April, when details about it first leaked out via a Linux patch. In a follow-up article, we explored an Intel patent which provided some more information about ADM / L4 caching. In brief, this cache will be situated in the MTL chip’s base title or interposer. This means it could be shared between CPU, GPU, VPU, and even the new GNA AI-accelerator. It isn’t certain how the ADM cache will vary between chips in the MTL family, we shall have to wait and see – as well as waiting to see its performance benefits.

Moving along, the MTL-P chip that has been snapshotted by Sisoft Sandra, and shared by momomo_us, is seen here with 64 Arc Alchemist EUs on board (512 shaders). This is pretty good for an integrated GPU (iGPU) and could be sped on by the L4 cache mentioned above. We have previously seen MTL laptop chips with more GPU cores though, for example, last month we reported on a Dell laptop featuring a chip with 128 EUs on board (1024 shaders, and thus matching the discrete Arc A380).

Meteor Lake chips like the MTL-P sample we discuss above will hit mobile platforms first, in the latter part of the year. There have been lots of reports swirling about when or if we will ever see MTL desktop chips, but it now looks likely that desktop users will get Raptor Lake Refresh instead.