Intel Panther Lake processors: up to 18 cores, 18A process, partners have already received the first samples

During the 22nd annual Barclays Global Technology Conference, Intel was represented by two interim co-chairmen, Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner. They spoke about the state of affairs at Intel and shared some details about future processors.

One of the most interesting aspects of the presentation was the upcoming Intel Panther Lake processor, a direct successor to the Intel Core Ultra 200S Arrow Lake-H mobile processors. The company has confirmed that Panther Lake will use Intel’s 18A process, and a few select customers have already received the first engineering samples of Panther Lake version ES0.

She added that the company already has samples of ES0 Panther Lake, «which we have shipped to customers». Eight customers have already launched these chips, which gives an idea of the state of both the processor and the fab.

It is not yet known exactly what ES0 means for Intel. We can assume that this is one of the first engineering samples on the 18A process. The ES designation probably refers to engineering samples, and the zero after it may mean the first iteration of the architecture.

Intel Panther Lake-H processors will have up to 18 cores: 6 P-core, 8 E-core and 4 LP-core. The architecture of this line returns low-power E-core to the chip. The P-core is based on the Cougar Cove architecture, which should provide a higher number of instructions per clock cycle than Lion Cove. However, the existing Skymont E-core is retained. The chip can switch from the 6nm process inherent in Arrow Lake to a new process to accommodate LP cores and an updated NPU unit. The integrated GPU is expected to use the Xe3 Celestial architecture.

With Arrow Lake-H expected to launch in early 2025, Panther Lake-H is likely to arrive no earlier than 2026.

Source: techpowerup