Until now, Intel’s public stance has been that its Core Ultra (or “Meteor Lake”) chip will simply be a mobile processor. But that’s not true, the general manager of Intel’s Client Computing Division confirmed recently.
In an interview with Michelle Johnston Holthaus, the executive vice president who oversees Intel’s processor division, she confirmed (and re-confirmed) that a desktop version of Meteor Lake would debut in 2024. “You are confirming Meteor Lake desktop?” I asked. “Yes,” Holthaus replied.
Intel’s 14th-gen Core processor, Meteor Lake emphasizes low power via a move to a smaller Intel 4 process technology, breaking up or disaggregating the technology into four separate tiles, and with a new type of low-power E-core that can handle surprisingly powerful tasks. Holthaus explained how they all work together during an interview at the Intel Innovation conference in San Jose last week.
An Intel representative offered some confirmation and a bit of clarification to the remarks Holthaus made. “Meteor Lake is a power-efficient architecture that will power mobile and desktop designs, including desktop form factors like [all-in-one PCs] AIO. We’ll have more product details to share in the future,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
The question, of course, is what a “desktop” version of Meteor Lake will look like: soldered down? Socketed? Holthaus didn’t say, and Intel hasn’t confirmed one way or the other.
The Core Ultra or Meteor Lake chip also includes a new AI core, called an NPU, which attempts to put AI functions directly on your PC. How that will improve AI versus interacting with AI in the cloud is something that Intel is figuring out, Holthaus said. (Robert Hallock, a technical marketing manager for Intel, helps explain the purpose of the NPU and what it’s good for in a separate video.)
“I don’t want to define what success looks like,” Holthaus said. “I want to unleash the marketplace to help us define how is AI going to be successful, what problems is it going to solve, and why are people so excited about it.”
For more details, watch the full interview with Intel’s Michelle Johnston Holthaus.
This story was updated at 10:40 AM on Sept. 27, 2023, with additional comments from Intel.
