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Chipzilla doubles down on 18A with Panther Lake

by on02 April 2025


New client CPU platform to hit shelves in early 2026 with chiplet graphics twist

Troubled Chipzilla is throwing everything it’s got at its Panther Lake CPU platform, eyeing a launch window in the second half of 2025 and cranking up volume supply by early 2026.

Built on the much-touted 18A node—marking the first true leap beyond Intel 3—these chips will pack Chipzilla’s latest packaging wizardry, promising more tiles than a Victorian toilet. The 18A line will enter full-bore production later this year as Chipzilla tries to prove it still matters.

Panther Lake will shove together brand-new Cougar Cove P-Cores and Skymont E-Cores, blending six of the former with eight of the latter. Mobile users can expect wattages ranging from 15 to 45. The big swing? The integrated GPU will show off Job’s Mob-style ambitions with 12 Xe3 “Celestial” cores slapped together in a chiplet formation.

The CPU’s five-die setup includes separate compute and GPU tiles, along with bits for IO, SoC control, and even a dummy slice—because of symmetry, apparently.

Panther Lake is the lovechild of Chipzilla’s Arrow Lake (muscle-first) and Lunar Lake (low-power finesse) families. It's their attempt to have their cake and scoff it too. Nova Lake’s up next, pencilled in for late 2026 if Chipzilla’s fabs can keep their trousers on.

Meanwhile, the former TSMC co-COO twisted the knife recently, saying “Intel is a nobody” and should “merge with mature chip technology firms”—a stinging indictment of Chipzilla’s current rep in silicon circles.

Intel Mobility CPU Lineup:

CPU Family

Panther Lake

Lunar Lake

Arrow Lake

Meteor Lake

Raptor Lake

Alder Lake

Process Node (CPU Tile)

Intel 18A

TSMC N3B

Intel 20A
TSMC N3B

Intel 4

Intel 7

Intel 7

Process Node (GPU Tile)

TSMC 3/2nm?

TSMC N3B

TSMC N4?

TSMC 5nm

Intel 7

Intel 7

CPU Architecture

Hybrid

Hybrid (Dual-Core)

Hybrid (Triple-Core)

Hybrid (Triple-Core)

Hybrid (Dual-Core)

Hybrid (Dual-Core)

P-Core Architecture

Cougar Cove

Lion Cove

Lion Cove

Redwood Cove

Raptor Cove

Golden Cove

E-Core Architecture

Skymont?

N/A

Skymont

Crestmont

Gracemont

Gracemont

LP E-Core Architecture (SOC)

Skymont?

Skymont

Crestmont

Crestmont

N/A

N/A

Top Configuration

6+8 (H-Series)

4+4 (MX Series)

6+8 (H-Series)
2+8 (U-Series)

6+8 (H-Series)
2+8 (U-Series)

6+8 (H-Series)
8+16 (HX-Series)

6+8 (H-Series)
8+8 (HX-Series)

Max Cores / Threads

TBD

8/8

14/14

14/20

14/20

14/20

AI NPU

NPU5 (TBD TOPS)

NPU4 (48 TOPS)

NPU3.5 (TBD)

NPU3 (11 TOPS)

NPU2 (7 TOPS)

NPU2 (7 TOPS)

Planned Lineup

Core Ultra 300

Core Ultra 200V

Core Ultra 200

Core Ultra 100

14th/13th Gen

12th Gen

GPU Architecture

Xe3-LPG (Celestial)

Xe2-LPG (Battlemage)

Xe-LPG+ (Alchemist)

Xe-LPG (Alchemist)

Iris Xe (Gen 12)

Iris Xe (Gen 12)

Xe Cores (Max)

12 Xe3 Cores

8 Xe2 Cores

8 Xe Cores

8 Xe Cores

96 EUs (768 Cores)

96 EUs (768 Cores)

Memory Support

TBD

LPDDR5X-8533

DDR5-5600
LPDDR5-7500
LPDDR5X-8533

DDR5-5600
LPDDR5-7400
LPDDR5X - 7400+

DDR5-5200
LPDDR5-5200
LPDDR5-6400

DDR5-4800
LPDDR5-5200
LPDDR5X-4267

Memory Capacity (Max)

TBD

32 GB

128 GB

96 GB

64 GB

64 GB

Thunderbolt Ports

TBD

TBD

TBD

4 (TB4)

4 (TB4)

4 (TB4)

WiFi Capability

TBD

WiFi 7

TBD

WiFi 6E

WiFi 6E

WiFi 6E

TDP

TBD

17-30W

TBD

7W-45W

15-55W

15-55W

Launch

2H 2025

2H 2024

2H 2024

2H 2023

1H 2023

1H 2022

 

Last modified on 02 April 2025
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