Intel Meteor Lake Leak Reveals Core Architecture Configuration For 14th Gen CPUs
Intel's current 12th-generation Core processors are built using the Alder Lake design, which leverages the Golden Cove architecture for the P-cores and Gracemont architecture for the E-cores. Next-gen parts, codenamed Raptor Lake, are expected to use a revised Golden Cove, known as Raptor Cove, for the P-cores, and carry forward the same Gracemont design for the E-cores.
We've known a fair amount about what's coming after Raptor Lake for some time now. The 14th-generation parts will be known as Meteor Lake, and if rumors are accurate, Intel will be targeting the mobile market with them first. These will be Intel's first "disaggregated" processors, which is Intel's way of saying that they're going to use multiple discrete dice (or "chiplets", in AMD nomenclature) to do their thing.
One of the key details we haven't known for sure about Meteor Lake was what core architectures it would be using. Naturally, we could guess that the P-cores will use some evolution of the "Cove" microarchitecture, while the E-cores will probably be some derivation of Gracemont. Folks had come up with the names "Redwood Cove" and "Crestmont" before, but there was no confirmation until now.
Posting on Twitter, InstLatX64 leaked some Microsoft Perfmon logs that contain the codenames of the core architectures to be used in Meteor Lake: Redwood Cove for the P-cores, and Crestmont for the E-cores, just as leaked back in 2020. Knowing the names doesn't tell us a lot on its own at this time, but it does show that they're different enough from Raptor Cove and Gracemont to warrant new names. Those same rumors previously stated that Redwood Cove would be an all new-from-the-ground-up design.
The 13th-gen Raptor Lake parts are expected to appear soon, but according to rumors, Meteor Lake will be less than a year behind it, at least for laptops. Desktop Meteor Lake may be further away. Older rumors had Raptor Lake getting bested by AMD's upcoming Zen 4, but we're not so sure that will be the case. In any event, we'll find out when both parts hit our test benches later this year.
