Intel will continue its outsourcing strategy with Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake set to leverage TSMC’s 3nm-class process nodes. The 15th Gen Arrow Lake lineup will utilize the Intel 20A node for the CPU tile and TSMC’s 3nm (N3) node for the iGPU tile. Like Meteor Lake, they will be 3D stacked on top of the base tile using Foveros packaging technology. The upgrade from Meteor to Arrow Lake will include a more advanced CPU tile (4->20A), while the iGPU tile remains unchanged.
Lunar Lake will be limited to the notebook segment, featuring a CPU tile fabbed on the Intel 18A node and an iGPU tile outsourced to TSMC’s N3B node (3nm+). Like its predecessor (Lakefield), it’ll likely be produced in limited quantities for high-end and enthusiast ultrabooks/convertibles. The other day, Intel detailed its foundry roadmap, with plans of becoming the #2 foundry, beating Samsung and locking horns with TSMC.
Intel’s foundry division is slowly becoming a separate entity, eager to serve longtime rivals AMD, Arm, and NVIDIA. Speaking to reporters, CEO Pat Gelsinger revealed that there will be a clean line between Intel products and Intel Foundry. The company will set up separate legal entities for the two divisions, each with budgets, expenditures, and financials.
The 15th Gen Arrow Lake processors will be the most significant upgrade since Alder Lake. Like Meteor Lake, they’ll utilize a disaggregated (chiplet) architecture, with a 2nm-class 20A CPU die. The P-cores will be upgraded to Lion Cove (from Redwood Cove) and E-cores to Skymont (from Skymont). The iGPU tile will be the same as Meteor Lake, leveraging the Xe-LPG architecture on a TSMC 3nm node.
The 15th Gen family will feature up to 24 cores (8P + 16E), without hyperthreading. This will be the first step in Intel’s journey from SMT to Rentable Units. The P-core L2 cache is expected to increase by 50% to 3MB (previously 2MB). A single-threaded uplift of 5% and a multi-threaded boost of 15% are being targeted per leaked Intel documents.
Lunar Lake is supposed to be an ultrabook/convertible SoC succeeding Lakefield. It’ll be fabbed on the Intel 18A (CPU) and TSMC’s N3B (iGPU) node and feature up to 10 cores (4P + 4E + 2LP). These chips will be similar to Arrow Lake but produced on superior nodes with a lower TDP of 7-15W. They’ll launch right after Arrow Lake during the holiday season.
Intel CPU Roadmap Updated: 15th Gen Arrow Lake + Lunar Lake in 2024, Panther Lake in 2025 & Nova Lake in 2026
Via: ChinaTimes
