Once, finally and for all Intel's Meteor Lake is not coming to the desktop CPU sockets
In a surprisingly unsurprising development, Intel has clarified its position on the upcoming Metoer Lake architecture. It's not coming to the desktop. The problem is that only last week Intel's Michelle Johnston Holthaus, executive vice president and general manager of the client computing group, said it was. Or at least, it seemed like she did.
To recap, the exchange captured on video went like this:
Q: Let me ask you, is there going to be a Meteor Lake desktop?
A: Desktop will come in 2024.
Q: So you are confirming Meteor Lake desktop?
A: Yes.
Which seems definitive enough. However, if you've been around senior Intel suits enough, especially those from the marketing and business side of the company, you'd know to be careful about such statements. Which is why our Chris was rather sceptical when we first reported on this...
Now Intel has indeed clarified Holthaus's statements and it turns out Meteor Lake is not coming to the desktop. The will be no Meteor Lake for conventional LGA-socketed desktop platforms. Instead, like other mobile architectures including Ice Lake and Tiger Lake, some Meteor Lake BGA chips will find their way into ultra-small form factor desktop systems like All-in-Ones.
Intel's clarification to German website Computerbase was carefully worded in order to thread the gap between confirming that Meteor Lake isn't coming to the desktop and flat-out contradicting the head of its client PC division.
«Meteor Lake is a power efficient architecture that will power innovative mobile and desktop designs, including desktop form factors such as All-in-One (AIO). We will have more product details to share in the future.»
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