During Barclays 22nd Annual Global Technology Conference, Intel was a guest and two of the interim company co-CEOs Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner gave a little update on the state of affairs at Intel. One of the most interesting aspects of the talk was Intel's upcoming "Panther Lake" processor—a direct successor to Intel Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake-H" mobile processors. The company confirmed that Panther Lake would utilize an Intel 18A node and that a few select customers have powered on Panther Lake on the E0 engineering sample chip. "Now we are using Intel Foundry for Panther Lake, which is our 2025 product, which will land on 18A. And this is the first time that we're customer zero in a long time on an Intel process," said interim co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus, adding, "But just to give some assurances, on Panther Lake, we have our ES0 samples out with customers. We have eight customers that have powered on, which gives you just kind of an idea that the health of the silicon is good and the health of the Foundry is good."

While we don't know what ES0 means for Intel internally, we can assume that it is one of the first engineering samples on the 18A. The "ES" moniker usually refers to engineering samples, and zero after it could be the first design iteration. For reference, Intel's "Panther Lake-H" will reportedly have up to 18 cores: 6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 4 LP cores. The design brings back low-power island E-cores in the SoC tile. The P-cores use "Cougar Cove," which should have a higher IPC than "Lion Cove," while keeping the existing "Skymont" E-cores. The SoC tile may move from Arrow Lake's 6 nm to a newer process to fit the LP cores and an updated NPU. The iGPU is said to use the Xe3 "Celestial" architecture. With Arrow Lake-H launching in early 2025, Panther Lake-H likely won't arrive until 2026.

We have already confirmed that Intel is continuing the development of Arc gaming GPUs beyond the current Xe2 "Battlemage" series, with the new Xe3 "Celestial" architecture in the works. However, thanks to PCWorld's The Full Nerd podcast, Tom Petersen of Intel confirmed that the Xe3 IP has been finished, and the hardware teams are already working on the next Xe4 "Druid" GPU IP. "Our architects are way ahead of us, and they are already working on not the next thing but the next thing after the next thing," said Petersen, adding: "The way I would like to comment is our IP that's kind of called Xe3, which is the one after Xe2, that's pretty much baked, right. And so the software teams have a lot of work to do on Xe3. The hardware teams are off on the next thing, right. That's our cadence, that we need to keep going."

The base IP of next-generation Xe3 "Celestial" GPUs is done. That means the basic media engines, Xe cores, XMX matrix engines, ray tracing engines, and other parts of the gaming GPU are already designed and most likely awaiting trial fabrication. The software to support this Xe3 is also being developed while Intel's team is working on enabling more optimizations for the Xe2 "Battlemage" architecture, which we previewed recently. We assume that Intel's Xe GPU will now follow a stricter cadence of releases, with SKUs getting updated much faster, given that a lot is prepared for the future.

New rumors emerged via Notebookcheck that point to Intel's intention to continue developing discrete desktop GPUs after the imminent launch of its Arc Battlemage series. Leaker JayKihn confirmed in a comment on X that Intel is actively working on future GPU generations, namely the Arc Celestial and Arc Druid, unlike previous rumors that pointed to a possible cancellation if Battlemage underperforms. Sources say Intel is still committed to its GPU roadmap. With the Arc Battlemage series led by the B580 model, Intel is targeting the budget segment, going in direct competition with NVIDIA's RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti. Price-wise, we can expect graphic cards with Intel Arc Battlemage to go around $250 (for the 12 GB model) and although the performance will not be groundbreaking, it can attract interest from buyers on a tight budget.

Since Intel has reportedly canceled all plans to launch discrete laptop Battlemage cards, Arc Druid and Arc Celestial could follow the same path. Although details regarding Arc Celestial and Arc Druid are scattered, confirmation of their development is good news for the PC graphics card market. What we do know now is that Arc Celestial models will arrive in 2025 or early 2026, which could coincide with the launch of Intel's Panther Lake CPUs. The GPUs are expected to take advantage of the new Xe3 graphics architecture (Arc B580 will feature Intel's Xe2-HPG architecture). However, given Intel's latest challenges, the ultimate success of these next-generation GPUs remains to be seen, while we still believe that the success of Arc Battlemage will be decisive for future Intel GPU development.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger was a special guest at Lenovo Tech World 2024, the computing giant's annual showcase of its latest innovations. The opening keynote address saw Gelsinger make a special appearance to greet Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing, but he wasn't alone. In his pocket was a next-generation "Panther Lake" processor. This chip appears to be an H-segment package for mainstream notebooks, which makes the chip a direct successor to the "Arrow Lake-H" mobile processor that comes out in Q1-2025.

According to leaks from reliable sources, "Panther Lake-H" is said to come in CPU core-counts of up to 18. That's 6P+8E+4LP. It sees the reintroduction of low-power island E-cores located in the SoC tile. The six P-cores are "Cougar Cove," which could feature a generational IPC uplift over the current "Lion Cove," while the current "Skymont" E-cores are carried forward into "Panther Lake." The SoC tile could see an upgrade to a newer foundry node from its current 6 nm on "Arrow Lake," to accommodate the low-power island E-cores, and possibly a faster NPU. The iGPU of "Panther Lake" is allegedly based on the next-generation Xe3 "Celestial" graphics architecture. This faster iGPU, along with a faster NPU, low-power island E-cores, and slightly faster P-cores, could be what "Panther Lake-H" brings to the table. Given that "Arrow Lake-H" sees an early-2025 introduction, we don't expect "Panther Lake-H" out till at least 2026.

Intel is preparing to launch its next generation of mobile CPUs with Core Ultra 200 series "Lunar Lake" leading the charge. However, as these processors are about to hit the market, leakers reveal Intel's plans for the next-generation Core Ultra 300 series "Panther Lake". According to rumors, Panther Lake will double the core count of Lunar Lake, which capped out at eight cores. There are several configurations of Panther Lake in the making based on the different combinations of performance (P) "Cougar Cove," efficiency (E) "Skymont," and low power (LP) cores. First is the PTL-U with 4P+0E+4LP cores with four Xe3 "Celestial" GPU cores. This configuration is delivered within a 15 W envelope. Next, we have the PTL-H variant with 4P+8E+4LP cores for a total of 16 cores, with four Xe3 GPU cores, inside a 25 W package. Last but not least, Intel will also make PTL-P SKUs with 4P+8E+4LP cores, with 12 Xe3 cores, to create a potentially decent gaming chip with 25 W of power.

Intel's Panther Lake CPU architecture uses an innovative design approach, utilizing a multi-tile configuration. The processor incorporates five distinct tiles, with three playing active roles in its functionality. The central compute operations are handled by one "Die 4" tile with CPU and NPU, while "Die 1" is dedicated to platform control (PCD). Graphics processing is managed by "Die 5", leveraging Intel's Xe3 technology. Interestingly, two of the five tiles serve a primarily structural purpose. These passive elements are strategically placed to achieve a balanced, rectangular form factor for the chip. This design philosophy echoes a similar strategy employed in Intel's Lunar Lake processors. Panther Lake is poised to offer greater versatility compared to its Lunar Lake counterpart. It's expected to cater to a wider range of market segments and use cases. One notable advancement is the potential for increased memory capacity compared to Lunar Lake, which capped out at 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory running at 8533 MT/s. We can expect to hear more potentially at Intel's upcoming Innovation event in September, while general availability of Panther Lake is expected in late 2025 or early 2026.

Intel is reportedly pitching Microsoft to work on an "all American" semi-custom SoC for Microsoft's next Xbox generation that succeeds the Series X/S. The company's main pitch to Microsoft is the fact that the chip would be made entirely in the US, including its silicon fabrication and packaging. Microsoft currently relies on AMD for its SoC, which combines an AMD "Zen 2" CPU with a powerful RDNA2 iGPU that meets DirectX 12 Ultimate requirements.

Intel's semi-custom chip could be functionally the same, albeit based on its next generation CPU and graphics microarchitectures. Strengthening Intel's case is the fact that it now has a contemporary high performance gaming graphics architecture in Xe "Alchemist," and is on course to launch its successor, the Xe² "Battlemage," later this year. The company also made huge strides with chiplet-based SoCs as demonstrated with "Meteor Lake." Intel's semi-custom SoC for Microsoft could combine any of its upcoming CPU microarchitectures, such as "Lunar Lake," or "Panther Lake," and an iGPU based on "Battlemage" or Xe³ "Celestial." This chip could also integrate a next generation NPU if the platform calls for one. This wouldn't be Intel's first rodeo with powering a console; in fact the very first Microsoft Xbox was powered by a Pentium 3 "Coppermine" CPU, paired with a discrete GeForce 3 GPU supplied by NVIDIA.

Intel Graphics employees inadvertently revealed that the company's Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture is being designed for the 4 nm silicon fabrication node, which would give Intel's GPU designers a leap in transistor density and power headroom, given that TSMC 4 nm is an EUV node compared to the current 6 nm DUV node the company builds its Arc "Alchemist" GPUs on. The leak also seems to confirm that its succeeding "Celestial" graphics architecture is being designed for 3 nm. An enthusiast named gamma0burst sifted through public profiles of several Intel employees, and scored these details in their professional profile pages.

We are almost certain that Xe2 "Battlemage" is going to be built on the TSMC 4 nm node, and to a slightly lesser degree, about Xe3 "Celestial" being designed for TSMC's 3 nm N3X node. Intel roadmaps pin the debut of "Battlemage" to a 2023-2024 timeline, although this could also be a reference to the iGPU of the upcoming Core "Meteor Lake" processors that debut in the second half of 2023. Intel is highly likely to deliver "Meteor Lake" within its 2H-2023 timeline, which would mean that the mention of "2024" in the graphics technology roadmap could mean that discrete GPUs based on "Battlemage" only arrive next year.

Intel has appointed Deepak Patil as the new corporate vice president and general manager of its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG) group. Patil is set to succeed Raja Koduri in this leadership role - company CEO Pat Gelsinger was the first person to announce news (last month) of Koduri's departure from Intel. At the time of his leaving Team Blue, Koduri's official job title was "Executive Vice President and Chief Architect" so the wording of his successor's executive ranking is slightly different. Patil is the current chief technology and strategy officer at the Intel Data Center and AI Group, and was previously senior vice president at Dell APEX USA. He will be taking over directly from interim AXG division leader Jeff McVeigh.

The official Intel statement regarding its new leadership appointment states: "Intel will deliver competitive accelerated computing products and build scalable systems with easy-to-program software on a predictable cadence. Deepak Patil will serve as the CVP and General Manager of the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG) group. Deepak recently held the position of DCAI Chief Technology and Strategy Officer. Having held senior engineering leadership positions across the high-tech industry, including being a founding member of Microsoft Azure and leading Dell's APEX as-a-service business, he understands the important role that software and open ecosystems play in enabling application developers and service providers to bring innovative solutions to market, at scale."

"Panther Lake" is the codename for the microarchitecture behind Intel's 17th Gen Core processors due for 2026-27. It succeeds the 16th Gen "Lunar Lake" (2025-26), 15th Gen "Arrow Lake" (2024-25); and 14th Gen "Meteor Lake" (2023-24) architectures. While very little is known about "Panther Lake," the first piece of information discovered in the LinkedIn profile page of one Intel Graphics engineer, suggests that the graphics tile of the processor will feature an iGPU based on the Xe3 "Celestial" graphics architecture, which is two generations ahead of the current Xe "Alchemist," and one ahead of Xe2 "Battlemage."

Intel's graphics architectures will continue to be highly scalable and modular in their applications, with variants of them scaling between low-power iGPUs to large client discrete GPUs, and very-large HPC-AI processors. The variant for the iGPU powering "Panther Lake" will be Xe3-LPG, a highly skimmed version of the architecture for lower Xe Core counts, with just the right hardware to operate in power-constrained devices such as mobile processors. From the looks of it, Intel will stick with the disaggregated chiplet design for its processor architectures going all the way down to "Panther Lake," as an older company slide detailing the scalability of "Celestial" highlighted a "next platform" processor succeeding "Meteor Lake" and its immediate successor ("Arrow Lake").

Intel plans to ship no less than 4 million discrete GPUs in 2022, the company stated in its Investor Meeting 2022 presentation. The Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group (AXG), headed by Raja Koduri, announced this bold target. The company announced a Q1-2022 debut of its ambitious new Arc "Alchemist" discrete GPU for notebooks (before April). This is to be followed by a desktop debut in Q2-2022 (before July), before a professional-visualization (workstation-class) debut in Q3 (before October). All put together, the company plans to ship over 4 million discrete GPUs over the year.

Intel announced over 50 design wins for OEMs and "AICs." This is big, as it denotes that Arc "Alchemist" graphics cards won't just be sold in the OEM/SI channel, but also the DIY retail channel. Among the familiar brands in the DIY space from the Intel slide are ASUS, MSI, and GIGABYTE. The company is working with over 100 software-ecosystem partners or ISVs, to optimize their current and upcoming applications and games, for the Xe HPG graphics architecture. This includes support for the XeSS performance enhancement (analogous to AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS), and DeepLink, a graphics processing resource virtualization tech. Intel plans to launch a new generation of Arc almost every year for the next 3 years, starting with "Alchemist" in 2022, "Battlemage" somewhere around 2023-2024, and "Celestial" after 2024.

Intel has recently unveiled its plans for their 3rd generation Celestial Arc graphics cards to compete with NVIDIA and AMD in the "Ultra Enthusiast" GPU market. The Arc Celestial GPU series is now scheduled to launch in 2024 with the architecture currently under active development. These cards will target future flagship cards from NVIDIA however in 2023/2024 we should see the launch of 2nd generation Arc Battlemage products that may narrow the gap. The timeline Intel shared indicates a launch date of 2024+ for Celestial GPUs so the launch date may slip into 2025. This was previously the year which Intel was rumored to launch 4th generation Arc Druid graphics cards so it remains to be seen if this official timeline will hold.

At Intel's 2022 Investor Meeting, Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger and Intel's business leaders outlined key elements of the company's strategy and path for long-term growth. Intel's long-term plans will capitalize on transformative growth during an era of unprecedented demand for semiconductors. Among the presentations, Intel announced product roadmaps across its major business units and key execution milestones, including: Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics, Intel Foundry Services, Software and Advanced Technology, Network and Edge, Technology Development, More: For more from Intel's Investor Meeting 2022, including the presentations and news, please visit the Intel Newsroom and Intel.com's Investor Meeting site.

Intel today surprised us with the reveal of its new high-performance gaming graphics brand, Intel Arc. Competing with the AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce brands, Arc enables Intel to take a stab at the gaming graphics market that's been a duopoly for the past 2 decades; and the company doesn't intend to only make low-cost e-sports chips. As if a statement of intent, the company revealed the codenamed of the first three generations of Arc: "Battlemage," "Celestial," and "Druid."

Of these "Battlemage" is likely the fancy new codename for the Xe HPG graphics architecture, which has been implemented in a working prototype referred to as the DG2, and which Intel is now referring to as "Alchemist." Intel revealed that "Battlemage" is being designed to meet DirectX 12 Ultimate requirements, which means it will support hardware-accelerated real-time raytracing; mesh shaders, sampler feedback, and variable-rate shading. Intel also announced that the chips will feature an AI-accelerated supersampling feature. This will rival NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR. Intel announced that the first consumer products based on the "Alchemist" silicon will release in the first quarter of 2022, the company will put out more specifics throughout 2021, in the run-up to this launch.