Intel's leaked roadmap shows they are accelerating the development of new CPU product lines

On the morning of February 25, Intel's leaked roadmap indicated that the company is developing a new CPU product line with the goal of developing products that surpass the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips by the end of 2023 or early 2024 (nearly two years later).

Intel's roadmap, originally leaked by Adored TV and expanded upon by Wccftech, makes it clear that Intel wants to compete with Apple's 14-inch MacBook Pro (equipped with an M1 Pro or M1 Max chip) with its Arrow Lake series.

According to the roadmap, Intel's 15th-generation Arrow Lake processors could be delivered in late 2023 or early 2024, prioritizing high performance with minimal energy consumption.

“It looks like Intel is prioritizing mobile over desktop systems. Although it will launch both Arrow Lake-S and Arrow Lake-P series CPUs, the company aims to produce its 15th generation mobile CPUs first to tackle Apple’s next-generation MacBook 14-inch laptop.

According to the leaked roadmap, it looks like we will see the first engineering samples in late 2022 and early 2023, with QS chips shipping in Q3 2023 and final production starting in the same quarter. Finally, the CPUs will be ready for RTS (Ready to Ship) in Q4 2023. So this means we are looking at a late 2023 or early 2024 launch of the next-generation Arrow Lake mobile CPU family.”

The roadmap also says Intel will use TSMC's 3nm process technology. Apple currently uses 5nm process for its latest chips and is expected to adopt 3nm in 2023.

At present, at least on paper, Intel's running points have surpassed Apple's "M1 Max" chip. Benchmark tests show that Intel's latest Core i9 processor scores higher than Apple's M1 Max chip in tests, but its energy efficiency ratio still lags behind, and the 4% performance improvement is offset by a significant reduction in battery life.

Tests show that laptops equipped with Intel's latest i9 chip can only play videos for 6 hours. In contrast, Apple's official latest 16-inch MacBook Pro provides up to 21 hours of battery life.

Of course, the reason why Apple's M series chips are successful is that they have a higher degree of integration in technology and systems than Intel+Windows. Intel may be able to solve the first problem, but the system is still made by Microsoft, which is a natural ecological defect.

Since Apple announced in the summer of 2020 that it would switch to its own chips, it has so far released four laptops and two desktop computers using its own chips.

It is said that at the "Spring Conference" in March, Apple will release at least one new Mac with self-developed chips, which may be a new high-end Mac mini and a low-end 13-inch MacBook Pro.