Josh Norem
2023-11-29 12:37:15
www.extremetech.com
Intel is expected to follow up its Raptor Lake refresh chips with an all-new architecture named Arrow Lake in 2024. As always with Intel, you never know if it will successfully hit its launch targets. However, it seems the company is already shipping these next-gen processors, indicating it’s pretty far along in its development cycle. Listings for Arrow Lake CPUs have appeared in shipping manifests for the first time, showing Intel has already begun sending them to partners for validation and testing.
The listings appear on an obscure website that seems to provide shipment tracking information and was unearthed by Twitter user @harukaze5719. This account usually posts upcoming hardware leaks, but anyone can go to the site and search for the CPUs to see the information, so this isn’t an anonymous report like we’re used to on Twitter. The listings read as “MICROPROCESSOR NEW ARROWLAKE H6C+8A+GT2,” and it states the reason for the shipment is “R&D,” which sounds right to us. The most interesting nugget of info is that it lists the core configuration as six performance and eight efficiency cores, along with GT2, the integrated GPU. The letter “H” in the name also indicates it’s a mobile CPU.
Intel’s Arrow Lake mobile CPUs are already being dispatched for “R&D” purposes, reportedly.
Credit: Newbaid data shipping
There are two surprising aspects of this revelation. The first is that Intel is already shipping these CPUs, as they’re not expected to launch for another year. Plus, they should be made on the Intel 20A process, two nodes beyond Meteor Lake, which uses Intel 4 (formerly 7nm). Beyond that node is Intel 3, which will be used for server chips, and then we leave FinFET behind with 20A for Arrow Lake. This means Intel is making good progress on its “five nodes in four years” strategy, which it calls IDM 2.0.
The second big reveal is the 6+8 core configuration, which matches the flagship Meteor Lake CPU. Arrow Lake is expected to arrive on both desktop and laptops, theoretically using the same 24-thread, 32-core design Raptor Lake offers. However, it appears the mobile version might not be quite as ambitious, but it will offer a slightly higher TDP than Meteor Lake, according to Videocardz. Arrow Lake mobile will reportedly support 45W TDP, while Meteor Lake is expected to top out at 30W, as it’s designed for slim laptops. Thanks to two low-power cores, this 6+8 design is a 16-core chip, like Meteor Lake.
Arrow Lake is expected to replace Raptor Lake refresh chips, including mobile and desktop variants when it arrives late next year. It’s starting to get confusing, though, as Meteor Lake launches on Dec. 14 for laptops, and those will exist alongside Raptor Lake-H, which is also for mobile. Following that is Lunar Lake, a low-power design that will replace Meteor Lake-U, which is made for ultra-thin laptops.