Meteor Lake processors, which will be Intel’s 14th-generation chips (following Raptor Lake) and are due in 2023, have already been spotted and photographed, or at least test versions of the chips have.

A close-up capture of a wafer of Meteor Lake test chips (see below), quite possibly of the M-Series, in this first sighting of Meteor Lake, which will be the first of Intel’s CPUs to blaze onto 7nm (finally) (low-power models).

Intel previously stated, manufacturing will begin in 2022, and shipping will begin in 2023 (recall that Meteor Lake was ‘taped in’ in May 2021, indicating that all separate design elements of the CPUs were complete at the time).

Sapphire Rapids’ next-generation Xeon Scalable processors for servers were also spotted during Intel’s Fab 42 in Arizona. We also learned about Sapphire Rapids-X high-end desktop (HEDT) chips earlier this week and how they’ll be available in Q3 of 2022.

Another exciting sign that Intel is on track for its Meteor Lake launch in 2023 is the discovery of test chips.

These 14th-gen processors will be based on the Intel 4 process (7nm EUV), which is expected to provide a significant performance boost of 20% over the Intel 7 (Enhanced SuperFin) used in current-gen Alder Lake chips. A refresh of the latter is expected to bridge the gap between Intel 7 and Intel 4, which, as previously stated, will be Raptor Lake 13th-gen.

Raptor Lake (along with Sapphire Rapids-X) is set to launch in Q3 of 2022, and it could be a significant step forward in terms of power efficiency.