When the 14th Generation of Core family CPUs goes on sale later this year, Intel will rethink its naming convention. After nearly 15 years, the well-known performance tier names Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 will be phased out and replaced with shorter Core 3, Core 5, Core 7, and Core 9 labels for mainstream consumer CPUs. However, high-performance "leadership" models will also be identified by a new set of Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7, and Core Ultra 9 tiers. In addition, Intel will no longer place an emphasis on generation numbers in its marketing or on its stickers. New usage guidelines and logos are also being introduced for the Intel Evo and vPro brands.
Although we do not yet know if the five-digit number sequence in each product's name will continue or if the Ultra modifier will replace the current X suffix for overclockable top-end CPUs, the company suggests that its customers have been asking for a simpler naming convention. Not only for each CPU tier, but also for Intel Evo-certified laptops and the vPro Enterprise and vPro Essentials business qualifications, new badge designs have been revealed.
With the transition to a modular manufacturing approach, Intel claims that the Meteor Lake architecture marks an "inflection point." This involves using Intel's Foveros 3D stacking and interconnect technology to combine a number of components that were produced on various processes and in various locations. A CPU tile made by Intel on the new Intel 4 process and GPU and IO tiles made by TSMC are expected to make up Meteor Lake CPUs for consumer laptops. Meteor Lake's use of the Xe GPU architecture is largely to blame for the graphics performance and power efficiency improvements claimed by Intel. This architecture will also introduce AI acceleration hardware, as confirmed at Computex 2023.
Meteor Lake's specifications and performance goals have not yet been confirmed by Intel. Interestingly, a separate product stack based on the alleged "Arrow Lake" architecture for desktop CPUs is also heavily rumored to only serve the laptop market for Intel's 14th Gen.