CNET has managed to capture the first die shots of several next-generation Intel Meteor Lake CPUs, Sapphire Rapids Xeons & Ponte Vecchio GPUs that are being tested & produced inside the chipmaker's Fab 42, situated in Arizona, US.

Glorious Die Shots of Intel's Next-Gen Meteor Lake CPUs, Sapphire Rapids Xeons & Ponte Vecchio GPUs Captured at Fab 42 in Arizona

The die shots were captured by CNET's Senior Reporter, Stephen Shankland, who visited Intel's Fab 42, located in Arizona, US. All the magic happens here as the Fabrication factory is producing next-generation chips for consumers, data centers, and the high-performance computing segments. The Fab 42 will handle Intel's next-generation chips produced on the 10nm (Intel 7) and 7nm (Intel 4) process nodes. Some of the key products that will utilize these next-generation nodes include the Meteor Lake client processors, Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors, and Ponte Vecchio GPUs for HPC.

Intel 4 Powered Meteor Lake CPUs For Client Computing

The first product to talk about is Meteor Lake. Heading to client desktop PCs in 2023, the Meteor Lake CPUs will be the first true multi-chiplet design from Intel. CNET managed to get shots of the first Meteor Lake test chips which look remarkably similar to the renders that Intel teased back at their Architecture Day 2021 event. The Meteor Lake test vehicle pictured above is used to ensure that the Forveros packaging design works correctly and as expected. Meteor Lake CPUs will utilize Intel's Forveros packaging technology to interconnect the various core IPs integrated on the chip.

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Intel Meteor Lake test chips prepare Chipzilla for the final production of next-gen Core CPUs. (Image Credits: CNET)

The die has four chiplets that are connected together on the same substrate. Based on what Intel has shown in their renders, the top die should be the Compute Tile, the middle tile should be the SOC-LP tile and the lower-most die should be the GPU tile. However, based on the die sizes, that doesn't go along well. The middle die could be the main Compute tile that houses the cores and the smaller die below it could be the SOC-LP tile that includes the IO. The topmost die should be the GPU while the smaller die next to it could be a separate cache or another IO tile. THis is just pure speculation for now as these are test chips and the final design may end up being different.

We also get a first look at the Meteor Lake test chip wafer which measures 300mm diagonally. The wafer comprises test chips which are dummy dies, once again to make sure that the interconnects on the chip work as intended. Intel already achieved Power-On for its Meteor Lake Compute CPU tile so we can expect final chips to be produced by the 2nd of 2022 for launch in 2023.

Here's Everything We Know About The 14th Gen Meteor Lake 7nm CPUs

We already got some details from Intel such as the fact that Intel's Meteor Lake line of desktop and mobility CPUs are expected to be based on a new line of Cove core architecture. This is rumored to be known as the 'Redwood Cove'and will be based on a 7nm EUV process node. It is stated that the Redwood Cove is designed from the ground up to be an agnostic node which means that it can be fabricated at different fabs. There are references mentioned that point out to TSMC to be a backup or even a partial supplier for the Redwood Cove-based chips. This might tell us why Intel is stating multiple manufacturing processes for the CPU family.

The Meteor Lake CPUs may possibly be the first CPU generation from Intel to say farewell to the ring bus interconnect architecture. There are also rumors that Meteor Lake could be a fully 3D-Stacked design and could utilize an I/O die sourced from an external fab (TSMC sighted again). It is highlighted that Intel will be officially utilizing its Foveros Packaging Technology on the CPU to inter-connect the various dies on the chip (XPU). This also aligns with Intel referring to each tile on 14th Gen chips individually (Compute Tile = CPU Cores).

The Meteor Lake Desktop CPU family is expected to retain support on the LGA 1700 socket which is the same socket used by Alder Lake & Raptor Lake processors. We can expect DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5.0 support. The platform will support both DDR5 & DDR4 memory with the mainstream and budget tier options going for DDR4 memory DIMMs while the premium & high-end offerings going for DDR5 DIMMs. The site also lists down both Meteor Lake P and Meteor Lake M CPUs that will be aimed at mobility platforms.

Intel Mainstream CPU Generations Comparison: