New evidence of Intel's Rocket Lake CPUs being compatible with 400 & 500 series chipsets has emerged from within the latest Linux Graphics driver patches. Phoronix reports that support for the upcoming 11th Gen CPUs with Gen 12 'Xe' platform has been added to the latest Linux driver.
Intel's Rocket Lake CPU With Gen 12 Xe Graphics Support Added To Linux Graphics Driver - Chipset Compatible With 400 & 500 Series
In the report, the source states that the first patches have been added to the Linux graphics driver that adds support for the Gen 12 Xe graphics featured on Intel's Rocket Lake CPUs. A total of 23 patches were included in the i915 Linux Kernel driver with over 700 lines of code. As of now, there are a total of 6 six PCI IDs for Xe graphics featured on Rocket Lake CPUs.
A list of differences between the Rocket Lake and Tiger Lake CPUs is also mentioned which include:
- Five universal planes for display purposes
- A third DPLL for use when driving three displays concurrently
- Various code changes but mostly re-used from the existing code paths for Tiger Lake
As these patches roll-out, tech leaker, Komachi, has also revealed that Rocket Lake can be paired with either TGP or CMP as mentioned in the patch. The CMP platform is for Comet Lake & based on the 400-series chipset while the TGP platform is for Tiger Lake & based on the 500-series chipset.
https://twitter.com/KOMACHI_ENSAKA/status/1256523338224001024
This is essentially referring to the mobile parts but we also confirmed in our exclusive report that Intel's Rocket Lake-S Desktop CPUs will be compatible with the newly introduced 400-series for the desktop platform including the Z490 motherboards. This has further been confirmed by board makers such as Gigabyte who revealed that next-gen Rocket Lake CPUs will be compatible with their Z490 lineup.
Several Z490 motherboards are equipped with hardware to support one of the highlight features of the Rocket Lake-S platform which is PCIe Gen 4. The hardware is already featured on the Z490 motherboards but users will only able to activate it by pairing them with a Rocket Lake-S CPU that lands sometime in the second half of 2020. The current Comet Lake-S desktop CPUs don't feature PCIe Gen 4 support but are exclusively designed for the LGA 1200 socket, with more pins allowing for higher current rating than the LGA 1151 socket.
Intel's Rocket Lake processors will be fabricated on a 14nm process node but feature an advanced 'Cove' architecture which is speculated to the best of both Sunny Cove and Willow Cove in terms of design. The Rocket Lake CPUs would also feature Gen 12 Xe graphics, same as the ones from Tiger Lake CPUs but there's a slight possibility that like Comet Lake-U/H, the Rocket Lake-U/H series will come with faster clock speeds owing solely due to the refined and much mature 14nm node. Tiger Lake itself will be using an advanced version of the 10nm process node but 14nm has been in the market for so long and we have seen it scale up to 10 cores and up to 5.30 GHz clock speeds it its latest iteration on Comet Lake-S & Comet Lake-H parts.
As far as the naming scheme is concerned, things might get confusing as if they aren't already. The Tiger Lake and Rocket Lake CPUs might both be called 11th Generation CPUs. The same is the case with Ice Lake and Comet Lake which are both referred to as 10th Generation CPUs. We might have naming scheme consistency on both mobility and desktop parts by the time Alder Lake CPUs arrive but those are planned for late 2021 or early 2022. Till then, the 14nm/10nm family combos will be part of the same Generation regardless of their very different internal architectures & core specs.
Intel Mainstream CPU Generations Comparison:
| Intel CPU Family | Processor Process | Processor Architecture | Graphics Architecture | Processors Cores/Threads (Max) | Platform | Memory Support | PCIe Support | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Lake (12th Gen) | Intel 7 | Golden Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 16/24 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2021 |
| Raptor Lake (13th Gen) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2022 |
| Raptor Lake Refresh (14th Gen) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2023 |
| Meteor Lake | Intel 4 | Redwood Cove (P-Core) Crestmont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 22/28 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Arrow Lake | TSMC N3B | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 24/24 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Arrow Lake Refresh | TSMC N3B | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 24/24 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2026 |
| Lunar Lake | TSMC N3B | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe2 (Battlemage) | 8/8 | Mobile Only | LPDDR5X | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Panther Lake | Intel 18A | Cougar Cove (P-Core) Darkmont (E-Core) | Xe3 (Battlemage) | 16/16 | Mobile Only | LPDDR5/LPDDR5X | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2025 |
| Nova Lake | Intel 18A | Coyote Cove (P-Core) Arctic Wolf (E-Core) | Xe3 (Battlemage) Xe3P (Celestial) | 52/52 | LGA 1954 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2026 |
| Razor Lake | Intel 18A? | Griffin Cove (P-Core) Golden Eagle (E-Core) | TBA | TBA | LGA 1954 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2027 |
| Titan Lake | TBA | Copper Shark (Unified) Golden Eagle (E-Core) | TBA | TBA | Mobile Only | LPDDR6? | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2028 |
https://twitter.com/KOMACHI_ENSAKA/status/1256884196968022016
In similar news, an internal roadmap of sorts has also been leaked out by Komachi which points out to supply schedule for both, the 11th Gen Tiger Lake and Lakefield CPUs which points out to September as general availability for products based on these chips. This isn't necessarily an Intel roadmap but has more to do with an OEM/Supplier. Intel has already confirmed the launch of its Tiger Lake mobility CPUs by mid of 2020.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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