Friday, January 31st 2025
Intel Confirms Panther Lake for 2H 2025, Nova Lake in 2026, Falcon Shores Canceled
Intel shared some news and updates about its upcoming CPU architectures during the Q4 earnings call. Intel confirmed that "Panther Lake", its next major CPU, is set to be released in late 2025. "Panther Lake" will use Intel's latest 18A manufacturing process and might be part of the Core Ultra 300 series. "Panther Lake" is rumored to combine next-generation "Cougar Cove" P-cores with existing "Skymont" E-cores both in the Compute complex, and in the SoC tile as low-power island E-cores. However, Intel hasn't confirmed if it will be available for desktop systems.
The following CPU architecture, "Nova Lake", is set to debut in 2026. Unlike "Panther Lake", we know "Nova Lake" will work on desktop computers. This suggests desktop users might need to wait until 2026 for an upgrade unless Intel surprises us with a desktop version of "Panther Lake" or an alternative option.
Source:
Videocardz
The following CPU architecture, "Nova Lake", is set to debut in 2026. Unlike "Panther Lake", we know "Nova Lake" will work on desktop computers. This suggests desktop users might need to wait until 2026 for an upgrade unless Intel surprises us with a desktop version of "Panther Lake" or an alternative option.
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, we will strengthen our client roadmap with the launch of Panther Lake, our lead product on Intel 18A, in the second half of 2025. As the first volume customer of Intel 18A, I see the progress that Intel Foundry is making on performance and yields. And I look forward to being in production in the second half as we demonstrate the benefits of our world-class design and process technology capabilities. 2026 is even more exciting from a client perspective as Panther Lake achieves meaningful volumes and we introduce our next-generation client family code-named Nova Lake. Both will provide strong performance across the entire PC stack with significantly better cost and margin for us, enhancing our competitive position and reinforcing our value proposition to our partners and customers."—Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-chief executive officer of Intel and CEO of Intel ProductsIntel changed its plans for "Falcon Shores"; this AI chip series will never be put into volume production and sold. Instead, Intel is using it for testing. However, we got confirmation that Intel next AI chip will be called "Jaguar Shores" instead.
Many of you heard me temper expectations on Falcon Shores last month. Based on industry feedback, we plan to leverage Falcon Shores as an internal test chip only without bringing it to market. This will support our efforts to develop a system-level solution at rack scale with Jaguar Shores to address the AI data center"—Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-chief executive officer of Intel and CEO of Intel ProductsIntel has not yet provided any information about the successor to LGA-1851, leaving us in the dark about the motherboards these chips will require.
22 Comments on Intel Confirms Panther Lake for 2H 2025, Nova Lake in 2026, Falcon Shores Canceled
And if the accountants are saying "no you can't do this because it's too expensive"?
Or "no you can't do this because we don't think it'll provide a sufficient return on investment"?
Then you have AMD with a fraction of the money invested churning out successful products. Maybe Intel doesn’t have the best engineers anymore, I don’t know. If they do, then they certainly aren’t getting success from them. I don’t think it’s a funding thing, but rather poor management.
I'll give you one example that is public, Optane. It got killed off a few years before it would've been a money printing press for Intel. How so do you say? In this age of AI and AI compute storage, there was nothing better fit than Optane. Now some might say Optane died because it was too expensive. Who do you think sets the prices? :laugh: (Yes, I know RnD, material costs, margin play a huge role in those decisions.)
I've seen companies lose their lead in a technology because some "accountant" thought they shouldn't continue to invest in that area later to find out they lost their lead and have to catch up now.
If you want evidence such as meeting minutes/recordings/cancelled roadmaps, you're not going to get that unless someone wants to expose themselves to all kinds of legal trouble.
Back in the 90s Boeing bought McDonnell-Douglas, a company that accountants had run into the ground and instead of firing those accountants, put them into Boeing management positions. The 737 MAX, which you may or may not recall has been involved in two fatal accidents, was the direct result. Engineers who raised concerned about the design were completely ignored.Intel didn't get a management team airlifted in and subsequently kill 346 people, but from the Skylake era they stopped concentrating on engineering and started concentrating on profits, converting a company of engineers into a company of managers. Management is supposed to exist to grease the gears of the engineering effort, but when you have too many managers that grease congeals into concrete, and that's the primary reason why Pat Gelsinger - despite himself being an engineer - couldn't turn the company around. Buffet's comment about taking 20 years to build a reputation and 5 seconds to destroy it, is equally applicable to a healthy engineering culture; 3 years was never going to be enough time for Gelsinger to unblock a sewer that had been clogging up since at least 2015.
I already know I won’t be treating me to those chips anytime soon, but I’m dying for something good out of them. Maybe I can convince some friends or relatives towards the end of 2026?* (It’s not that I share the Arrow Lake discontentment, though LNL is just exactly and full-on right up my alley!)
*I’m honest with my recommendations! Should AMD be better, they’d get the rec. I’ve just really loved what Intel’s been doing whenever it had come to buying or the price had been better with them. (Small sample size, I should say.)