Intel Announces New 14th Gen ‘Meteor Lake’ CPU Branding and Naming System

Intel is set to revamp its naming scheme for Core family CPUs with the release of the 14th Gen later this year, replacing the traditional Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 names stating performance tiers will be retired after nearly 15 years with shorter Core 3, Core 5, Core 7, and Core 9 labels for mainstream consumer CPUs.

Additionally, a new set of Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7, and Core Ultra 9 tiers will also be introduced to emphasize high-performance “leadership” models. Intel will also stop emphasizing generation numbers on its stickers and in marketing while the Intel Evo and vPro brands are also getting fresh usage guidelines and logos.

The company claims that its customers have been requesting a more straightforward naming system, but it is uncertain if the current five-digit number sequence in each product’s name will continue or if the Ultra modifier will replace the current X suffix for over-clockable top-end CPUs. Additionally, new badge designs have been revealed for Intel Evo certified laptops and the vPro Enterprise and vPro Essentials business qualifications.

Intel has stated that the Meteor Lake architecture represents a transition to a modular manufacturing approach, which involves the use of multiple components manufactured on different processes and locations, all utilizing Intel’s Foveros 3D stacking and interconnect technology. The new Meteor Lake CPUs for consumer laptops will consist of a CPU tile manufactured by Intel on the Intel 4 process, as well as GPU and IO tiles manufactured by TSMC.

Intel is already claiming significant improvements in power efficiency and graphics performance with Meteor Lake, largely thanks to the Xe GPU architecture, this architecture will also introduce dedicated AI acceleration hardware as reviled at Computex 2023.

At present, Intel has not announced any specifications or performance targets for Meteor Lake. Interestingly, there are also rumors that this architecture will only be available for the laptop segment of Intel’s 14th Gen, with a separate product stack based on the ‘Arrow Lake’ architecture for desktop CPUs.