Intel concluded its CES keynote with the confirmation that completely new CPU series will be released for both desktops and laptops in 2024. For desktops this concerns Arrow Lake, while Lunar Lake should improve the AI performance of laptops by up to three times.
While Intel’s Meteor Lake processors became available exclusively for laptops at the end of last year, Arrow Lake will be released for desktops. Although Arrow Lake will only bring minor improvements compared to Meteor Lake, it is the first time for the desktop that all the improvements that Intel made with Meteor Lake are available.
Arrow Lake therefore becomes Intel’s first desktop processor that uses a tile design, where the chiplets for, for example, the CPU cores and the integrated GPU can come from different factories. Intel is expected to engage TSMC for a number of these tiles. Furthermore, Intel confirmed that Arrow Lake will include an NPU for AI calculations for the first time.
Presumably the npu in Arrow Lake still uses the same architecture as that in Meteor Lake. The Lunar Lake processors for laptops, which will also be released in 2024, will have an NPU up to three times as fast. It was previously leaked that the tile with the CPU cores of Lunar Lake will be manufactured at TSMC, which would be the first time; Until now, the tile with the primary CPU cores always came from Intel’s own factories. Part of that leak was also that the CPUs will have 16 to 32GB of integrated Lpddr5x RAM. Those memory chips are clearly visible on the CPU that the manager of Intel’s Client Compute Group, Michelle Johnston Holthaus, showed during the presentation.