Intel 'Meteor Lake' CPUs Could Share TSMC's 5nm Process With ...

According to a supply chain report, Intel is deliberating manufacturing its 14th Gen Core “Meteor Lake” CPUs partly using TSMC’s 5nm process node on which Apple’s M1 chip is based.

Intel announced Meteor Lake chips last year. They are expected to be commercially available in 2023. Last week, the company provided an update, saying it plans to manufacture the chips in-house using the 7nm process. At Intel’s latest earnings call, CEO Pat Gelsinger announced that Meteor Lake prototypes would be the first processor lineup based on the 7nm node, internally known as “Intel 4.” Gelsinger said prototype CPUs already booted Windows and Linux operating systems successfully.

The Meteor Lake chips are expected to be the company’s first multi-chiplet design. They would integrate an application processor, graphics processing unit, and connection chips branded as a single Intel Foveros advanced package.

We have officially powered-on our first disaggregated product: Meteor Lake. An incredible milestone resulting from the efforts of so many across @intel. Congratulations, team! pic.twitter.com/eKvHzDqSiu

— Michelle Johnston Holthaus (@MJHolthaus) April 29, 2022

However, DigiTimes reports the company has made a critical decision to outsource the production to Taiwanese foundry TSMC. The report suggests Intel is eager to reap the benefits of the foundry’s 5nm process capabilities that catapulted Apple’s M1 chip to success. Besides the M1 chip, the A14 Bionic, A15 Bionic, M1 Max, M1 Pro, and M1 Ultra chips are also based on TSMC’s 5nm process.

The report cited anonymous sources with information suggesting that order volumes for Meteor Lake CPUs will push TSMC to increase its 5nm process fabrication capacity by the end of 2022. Nonetheless, Intel’s decision to brand Meteor Lake as an Intel 4 chip would be a tacit admission that its foundries cannot match the capabilities of TSMC’s 5nm process. The move also acknowledges that Intel cannot produce an M1 rival in-house.

Despite the 5nm process node shared with Apple’s M1 series, a lot of the Meteor Lake’s performance is dependent on other factors such as chip design. Only time will tell if these new chips can even match Apple’s M1 lineup (and upcoming processors) in terms of performance and efficiency.