Driver code for Meteor Lake-S has been incorporated into Linux 6.5

Despite previous rumors asserting the cancellation of Meteor Lake-S, current indications suggest that the 14th generation of Intel Core desktop processors will be entirely composed of Raptor Lake Refresh models. However, Meteor Lake-S has not been entirely abandoned, as its code still persists in the most recent Linux driver.

As per the report from Phoronix, the driver code for Meteor Lake-S has been incorporated into Linux 6.5 as a pin control driver. At this juncture, no substantial evidence indicates that Meteor Lake-S will be launched into the market, but this reaffirms that Intel hasn’t completely forsaken this product.

Although the concurrent existence of Meteor Lake-S and Raptor Lake Refresh isn’t entirely precluded, the likelihood remains minuscule, given the distinctive pin configurations and the significant architectural disparity between the two. Raptor Lake Refresh shares substantial similarities with the existing Raptor Lake, serving as an enhanced version of the 12th generation Intel Core Alder Lake, while Meteor Lake-S employs a novel architecture as Intel’s inaugural processor to utilize a small-chip design and will also incorporate a dedicated AI acceleration unit with a VPU.

The most probable scenario is that Meteor Lake-S will make its appearance in the desktop market alongside the later Arrow Lake-S, with the latter serving as a product for the Core Ultra 7 and above, and the former targeting Core Ultra 5 and below. After all, the former only has a 6P+8E configuration, while the latter could even reach an 8P+32E configuration.