Intel is delivering the Intel Accelerated event later today. The company is set to lay out a road map with its process and packaging technology over the next few years, hopefully touching on its upcoming processor ranges. Before the event starts, we’ll walk you through how to watch the Intel Accelerated event and what to expect from it.
Although Intel hasn’t revealed much about what it’s going to talk about, we know the company has been focused on refining its manufacturing process for the upcoming Alder Lake and Meteor Lake processors. We’ll hopefully get a look at both of them, and maybe even a glance at what’s coming next.
How to watch the Intel Accelerated event
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Senior Vice President and General Manager of Technology Development Dr. Ann Kelleher will head up the Intel Accelerated event at 2 p.m. PT on Monday, July 26. Intel hasn’t announced how long the event will last, but it should run about an hour.
You can watch the livestream on Intel’s website. A countdown is live in place of the video right now. Although Intel maintains a Twitch and YouTube channel, we’re not sure if the event will go live on those platforms. It’s best to stick to Intel’s livestream through its website if you want to tune in.
- When: 2 p.m. PT on Monday, July 26
- How to watch: Intel’s livestream on its website
If you miss the broadcast, you can rewatch it through the Intel Newsroom. It will go live shortly after the live event ends.
What to expect at the Intel Accelerated event
Intel hasn’t announced much about the event. The description says that “Intel is accelerating its annual cadence of innovation with new advancements in semiconductor process and packaging,” which means the event will likely focus on the advancements Intel is making in shrinking its manufacturing process under the IDM 2.0 strategy.
In March, Intel announced the IDM 2.0 strategy. Under the new leadership of Pat Gelsinger, the company laid out a roadmap with a focus on creating and innovating with semiconductors. The new path came with the announcement of a $20 billion investment to build two new semiconductor foundries in Arizona, as well as Intel Foundry Services.
Intel Foundry Services is a strategy from Intel to bolster semiconductor production in the U.S. and Europe. Intel is the only U.S. company that still designs and creates its own chips, and Intel Foundry Services opens up the manufacturing capacity to the rest of the world. Intel will likely open the event with an update on Intel Foundry Services and the investments it has made since the announcement.
Otherwise, the event page says the live stream will “provide a deeper look at Intel’s process and packaging roadmaps.” That should mean we’ll get a tease of the 7nm process Intel is currently working on for the upcoming Meteor Lake processors. The design was taped in early this year, which basically means that the various groups at Intel working on the processors submitted their final designs.
Meteor Lake isn’t expected until 2023, but Intel will likely talk about the 7nm manufacturing process and perhaps hint at what Meteor Lake will be capable of when it finally arrives.
That covers the “process” part of the road map. For the “packaging” part, Intel will likely talk about the Foveros 3D packaging technology. Announced at CES 2019 alongside Lakefield processors, this packaging technology allows Intel to stack compute tiles within a package, as well as incorporate multiple CPU cores designs into a single chip.
Intel recently announced a $3.5 billion investment in its New Mexico plant, with one of the big focuses being Foveros. The hybrid design of Foveros is expected to show up on Meteor Lake and the upcoming Alder Lake processors. Intel hasn’t fully unveiled Alder Lake yet, but the processors are expected to arrive later this year.
This hybrid design shows up in many mobile processors. Intel is spearheading it in the desktop space with Alder Lake, combining “big,” high-performance cores with “little,” high-efficiency cores. Dubbed as a big.LITTLE design by chip designer ARM, it can deliver a more efficient processor by delegating work to an appropriate core.
Right now, we’re not sure if Intel will focus solely on the future or if it will talk in detail about Alder Lake. It seems the company has to at least acknowledge the upcoming processors. Qualification samples — basically the final design of the processor — have already made the rounds, suggesting that the processor series is arriving soon.
Intel hasn’t announced anything outside of the few quotes we’ve referenced. However, given what we know about Intel’s direction, the event could have a little bit of everything. Alder Lake is the most exciting for the near future, but a glimpse at Meteor Lake would be exciting, too.
