The new kid on the block is Nova Lake, and it marks the start of what Intel now calls Family 18, according to fresh Linux kernel patches.

The update, spotted skulking around the Linux kernel mailing list by Phoronix, signals that Troubled Chipzilla is finally pushing past the dusty boundaries of an architecture label that’s housed everything from the Pentium Pro up to Arrow Lake. It’s a big enough change that the Linux mob had to refactor their kernel code to prepare for anything beyond Family 6.

Family 18 kicks off with two models: Nova Lake (Model 1) and Nova Lake L (Model 3), the latter presumably being the low-power laptop version for those who like their silicon sipping rather than chugging. These kernel hooks won’t mean much to everyday users yet, but they’ll open the floodgates for proper driver support covering graphics, scheduling and power gubbins once the hardware lands sometime in late 2026.

It’s a deep segmentation shift with Family 18 for the consumer chips and Family 19 for the big Xeon beasts like Diamond Rapids. The idea is to make tracking features and writing Linux drivers a bit less pants.

There’s still no official silicon spec in sight, just code plumbing. But the rumour mill says Nova Lake could be monstrous, doubling up on cores versus Arrow Lake with a layout boasting 16 Performance cores, 32 Efficiency cores, and 4 LPE cores for light tasks. It’ll also rock a new Xe4 iGPU named “Druid” because someone at Intel really likes wizards.

Word is Nova Lake will go beyond desktops and laptops to power things like gaming handhelds, with a variant dubbed Nova Lake-AX. And with Panther Lake expected to hit the ground first, bringing Intel’s 18A process to life under the Core Ultra 300 brand. Nova Lake looks set to follow it up with the full Linux red carpet, likely timed for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.