Intel has reportedly chosen the TSMC 4 nm EUV foundry node for its next generation Arc Xe2 discrete GPUs based on the "Battlemage" graphics architecture. This would mark a generational upgrade from the Arc "Alchemist" family, which Intel built on the TSMC 6 nm DUV process. The TSMC N4 node offers significant increases in transistor densities, performance, and power efficiency over the N6, which is allowing Intel to nearly double the Xe cores on its largest "Battlemage" variant in numerical terms. This, coupled with increased IPC, clock speeds, and other features, should make the "Battlemage" contemporary against today's AMD RDNA 3 and NVIDIA Ada gaming GPUs. Interestingly, TSMC N4 isn't the most advanced foundry node that the Xe2 "Battlemage" is being built on. The iGPU powering Intel's Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processor is part of its Compute tile, which Intel is building on the more advanced TSMC N3 (3 nm) node.

Intel very much does intend to make discrete gaming GPUs based on its Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture, which made its debut with the Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake-MX" processor as an iGPU. With its next generation, Intel plans to capture an even bigger share of the gaming graphics market, both on the notebook and desktop platforms. "Battlemage" will be crucial for Intel, as it will be able to make its case with Microsoft and Sony for semi-custom chips, for their next-generation consoles. Intel has all pieces of the console SoC puzzle that AMD does. A Xe2 "Battlemage" discrete GPU sample, codenamed "Churchill Falls," has been spotted making its transit in and out of locations known for Intel SoC development, such as Bangalore in India, and Shanghai in China.

Such shipping manifests tend to be incredibly descriptive, and speak of an Arc "Battlemage" X3 and Arc "Battlemage" X4 SKUs, each with 448 execution units (EU), across 56 Xe cores. Assuming an Xe core continues to have 128 unified shaders in the "Battlemage" architecture, you're looking at 7,168 unified shaders for this GPU, a staggering 75% increase in just the numerical count of the shaders, and not accounting for IPC increase and other architecture-level features. The descriptions also speak of a 256-bit wide memory bus, although they don't specify memory type or speed. Given that at launch, the Arc A770 "Alchemist" was a 1440p-class GPU, we predict Intel might take a crack at a 4K-class GPU. Besides raster 3D performance, Intel is expected to significantly improve the ray tracing and AI performance of its Xe2 discrete GPUs, making them powerful options for creative professionals.

During Computex 2024, Intel announced the next-generation compute platform for the notebook segment in the form of the Core Ultra 200V series, codenamed Lunar Lake. Set for release in September 2024, these processors are generating excitement among tech enthusiasts and industry professionals alike. According to the latest leak by VideoCardz, Intel plans to unveil nine variants of Lunar Lake, including Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 5 models, with a single high-end Core Ultra 9 variant. While exact specifications remain under wraps, Intel's focus on artificial intelligence capabilities is clear. The company aims to secure a spot in Microsoft's Copilot+ lineup by integrating its fourth-generation Neural Processing Unit (NPU), boasting up to 48 TOPS of performance. All Lunar Lake variants are expected to feature a hybrid architecture with four Lion Cove performance cores and four Skymont efficiency cores.

This design targets low-power mobile devices, striking a balance between performance and energy efficiency. For graphics, Intel is incorporating its next-generation Arc technology, dubbed Battlemage GPU, which utilizes the Xe2-LPG architecture. The leaked information suggests that Lunar Lake processors will come with either 16 GB or 32 GB of non-upgradable LPDDR5-8533 memory. Graphics configurations are expected to include seven or eight Xe2 GPU cores, depending on the model. At the entry level, the Core Ultra 5 226V is rumored to offer a 17 W base power and 30 W maximum turbo power, with performance cores clocking up to 4.5 GHz. The top-tier Core Ultra 9 288V is expected to push the envelope with a 30 W base power, performance cores boosting to 5.1 GHz, and an NPU capable of 48 TOPS. You can check out the rest of the SKUs in the table below.

TrendForce has observed that in 2024, major CSPs such as Microsoft, Google, Meta, and AWS will continue to be the primary buyers of high-end AI servers, which are crucial for LLM and AI modeling. Following establishing a significant AI training server infrastructure in 2024, these CSPs are expected to actively expand into edge AI in 2025. This expansion will include the development of smaller LLM models and setting up edge AI servers to facilitate AI applications across various sectors, such as manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and business.

Moreover, AI PCs or notebooks share a similar architecture to AI servers, offering substantial computational power and the ability to run smaller LLM and generative AI applications. These devices are anticipated to serve as the final bridge between cloud AI infrastructure and edge AI for small-scale training or inference applications.

As Intel gears for the launch of Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake processors, the company appears to be preparing a new line of high-performance processors for gaming laptops. Recent developments suggest that the company is adapting its desktop-grade Arrow Lake-S chips for use in ultra-high-performance notebooks. The buzz began when X user @InstLatX64 spotted Intel testing a peculiar motherboard labeled "Arrow Lake Client Platform/ARL-S BGA SODIMM 2DPC." This discovery hints at the possibility of Intel packing up to 24 cores into laptop processors, eight more cores compared to the 16 cores expected in standard Arrow Lake-H mobile chips. By utilizing the full potential of Arrow Lake-S silicon in a mobile form factor, Intel aims to deliver desktop-class performance to high-end notebooks in a BGA laptop CPU.

The leaked chip would likely feature eight high-performance Lion Cove P-cores and 16 energy-efficient Skymont E-cores, along with an integrated Xe2 GPU. This configuration could provide the raw power needed for demanding games and professional applications in a portable package. However, implementing such powerful hardware in laptops presents challenges. The processors are expected to have a TDP of 45 W or 55 W, with actual power consumption potentially exceeding these figures to maintain high clock speeds. Success will depend not only on Intel's chip design but also on the cooling solutions and power delivery systems developed by laptop manufacturers. As of now, specific details about clock speeds and performance metrics remain under wraps. The test chip that surfaced showed a base frequency of 3.0 GHz, notably without AVX-512 support.

Intel, in its Computex 2024 event unveiled its Core Ultra 300 "Lunar Lake" processor, along with a Q3 2024 date for the processors. It now turns out that the processors won't arrive until Fall 2024, specifically September, when the various notebook OEMs will merely announce their products based on the chips, followed by market availability of these notebooks through Holiday 2024, according to a DigiTimes report. The report also says that Intel's Core Ultra "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors could see an October 2024 announcement and availability for at least the Unlocked K- and KF SKUs, along with compatible Socket LGA1851 motherboards based on the top Intel Z890 chipset.

The DigiTimes report invited a clarification from Intel through Digital Trends. The company in a statement reaffirmed that the chips will be available "starting in Q3 2024, as noted at Computex." This statement aligns with the timeline that the company would commence shipments of "Lunar Lake" processors to OEMs starting in June, followed by product announcements and market availability in the following months.

TSMC has commenced mass-production of chips for Intel on its 3 nm EUV FinFET foundry node, according to a report by Taiwan industry observer DigiTimes. Intel is using the TSMC 3 nm node for the compute tile of its upcoming Core Ultra 300 "Lunar Lake" processor. The company went into depth about "Lunar Lake" in its Computex 2024 presentation. While a disaggregated chiplet-based processor like "Meteor Lake," the new "Lunar Lake" chip sees the CPU cores, iGPU, NPU, and memory controllers sit on a single chiplet called the compute tile, built on the 3 nm node; while the SoC and I/O components are disaggregated the chip's only other chiplet, the SoC tile, which is built on the TSMC 6 nm node.

Intel hasn't gone into the nuts and bolts of "Arrow Lake," besides mentioning that the processor will feature the same "Lion Cove" P-cores and "Skymont" E-cores as "Lunar Lake," albeit arranged in a more familiar ringbus configuration, where the E-core clusters share L3 cache with the P-cores (something that doesn't happen on "Lunar Lake"). "Arrow Lake" also features a iGPU based on the same Xe2 graphics architecture as "Lunar Lake," and will feature an NPU that meets Microsoft Copilot+ AI PC requirements. What remains a mystery about "Arrow Lake" is the way Intel will go about organizing the various chiplets or tiles. Reports from February 2024 mentioned Intel tapping into TSMC 3 nm for just the disaggregated graphics tile of "Arrow Lake," but we now know from "Lunar Lake" that Intel doesn't shy away from letting TSMC fabricate its CPU cores. The first notebooks powered by "Lunar Lake" are expected to hit shelves within Q3-2024, with "Arrow Lake" following on in Q4.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" desktop processors based on the "Zen 5" microarchitecture won't beat the Ryzen 7000X3D series at gaming workloads, said Donny Woligroski, the company's senior technical marketing manager, in an interview with Tom's Hardware. The new "Zen 5" chips, such as the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 9 9950X, will come close to the gaming performance of the 7800X3D and 7950X3D, but won't quite beat it. The new processors, however, will offer significant generational performance uplifts in productivity workloads, particularly multithreaded workloads that use vector extensions such as VNNI and AVX512. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D remains the fastest gaming desktop processor you can buy, it edges out even Intel's Core i9-14900KS, in our testing.

Given this, we expect the gaming performance of processors like the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 9 9950X to end up closer to those of the Intel Core i9-13900K or i9-14900K. Gamers with a 7000X3D series chip or even a 14th Gen Core i7 or Core i9 chip don't have much to look forward to. AMD confirmed that it's already working on a Ryzen 9000X3D series—that's "Zen 5" with 3D V-cache technology, and is sounds confident of holding on to the title of having the fastest gaming processors. This doesn't seem implausible.

Arm CEO Rene Haas predicts that SoCs based on the Arm CPU machine architecture will beat x86 in the Windows PC space in the next 5 years (by 2029). Haas is bullish about the current crop of Arm SoCs striking the right balance of performance and power efficiency, along with just the right blend of on-chip acceleration for AI and graphics, to make serious gains in this market, which has traditionally been dominated by the x86 machine architecture, with chips from just two manufacturers—Intel and AMD. On the other hand, Arm has a vibrant ecosystem of SoC vendors. "Arm's market share in Windows - I think, truly, in the next five years, it could be better than 50%." Haas said, in an interview with Reuters.

Currently, Microsoft has an exclusive deal with Qualcomm to power Windows-on-Arm (WoA) Copilot+ AI PCs. Qualcomm's chip lineup spans the Snapdragon Elite X and Snapdragon Elite Plus. This exclusivity, however, could change, with a recent interview of Michael Dell and Jensen Huang hinting at NVIDIA working on a chip for the AI PC market. The writing is on the wall for Intel and AMD—they need to compete with Arm on its terms: to make leaner PC processors with the kinds of performance/Watt and chip costs that Arm SoCs offer to PC OEMs. Intel has taken a big step in this direction with its "Lunar Lake" processor, you can read all about the architecture here.

As industry leaders and innovators gather at Computex 2024, ASUS is excited to unveil its latest computing technologies for work. This year's highlight is the debut of the all-new ASUS Expert P series, specifically designed for entrepreneurs, prosumers and home offices, marking a significant expansion in ASUS offerings for business. Leading this series is the flagship model ExpertBook P5 (P5405), the first ASUS next-era AI PC designed for work. It exemplifies the fusion of cutting-edge technology with practical functionality.

Powered by Intel Core Ultra processors (code-named 'Lunar Lake'), ExpertBook P5 embodies a new way of working. It introduces pioneering ASUS AI PC technology, boasting more than 45 TOPS NPU, delivering over 100 platform TOPS and approximately triple the AI performance of the first-generation Intel Core Ultra processor, ensuring quieter and cooler operations ideal for the dynamic environments of today's mobile professionals.

We are live from the Intel Computex 2024 Keynote address in Taipei. CEO Pat Gelsinger, along with the heads of the company's various business groups will take stage to unveil the latest in PC processors, server processors, generative AI accelerators, datacenter infrastructure gear, and lots more! In particular, we're interested in their Core Ultra "Lunar Lake" and "Arrow Lake" processors, and next-generation Xeon 6 chips. Can Gaudi 3 break into the duopoly between NVIDIA and AMD? Join us to find out in this live-blog!02:55 UTC: Something really cool from the show: The camera is pointing at Intel's industry partners in the audience, and a Gaudi 3 is turning them into superhero images!03:02 UTC: Pat Gelsinger takes center stage.

Amid all the attention the next-generation "Lion Cove" P-cores powering the upcoming "Lunar Lake" and "Arrow Lake" microarchitectures get as they compete with AMD's "Zen 5," it's easy to lose sight of the next-generation "Skymont" E-cores that will feature in both the upcoming Intel microarchitectures, and as standalone cores in the "Twin Lake" low-power processor. Pictures from an Intel presentation, possibly to PC OEMs, got leaked to the web. These are just thumbnails, we can't see the whole slides, but the person who took the pictures captioned them in a now-deleted social media post on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo.

And now, the big reveal—the "Skymont" E-core is said to offer a double-digit IPC gain over the "Crestmont" E-core powering the current "Meteor Lake" processor, which in itself posted a roughly 4% IPC gain over the "Gracemont" E-cores found in the "Raptor Lake" and "Alder Lake" microarchitectures. Such an IPC gain over "Gracemont" should make the "Skymont" E-core match the IPC of the "Sunny Cove" or "Willow Cove" P-cores powering the "Ice Lake" and "Tiger Lake" microarchitectures, respectively, which were both within the 90th percentile of the AMD "Zen 3" core in IPC.

Starting Q3 2024 in time for the holiday season, Intel's upcoming client processors (code-named Lunar Lake) will power more than 80 new laptop designs across more than 20 original equipment manufacturers, delivering AI performance at a global scale for Copilot+ PCs. Lunar Lake will get the Copilot+ experiences, like Recall, via an update when available. Building on the success of Intel Core Ultra processors and with the addition of Lunar Lake, Intel will ship more than 40 million AI PC processors this year.

"With breakthrough power efficiency, the trusted compatibility of x86 architecture and the industry's deepest catalog of software enablement across the CPU, GPU and NPU, we will deliver the most competitive joint client hardware and software offering in our history with Lunar Lake and Copilot+," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group.

Intel has prepared the Core Ultra 5-238V, a Lunar Lake-MX CPU that integrates 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory into the CPU package. This new design represents a significant departure from the traditional approach of using separate memory modules, promising enhanced performance and efficiency, similar to what Apple is doing with its M series of processors. The Core Ultra 5-238V is the first of its kind for Intel to hit mass consumers. Previous attempt was with Lakefield, which didn't take off, but had advanced 3D stacked Foveros packaging. With 32 GB of high-bandwidth, low-power LPDDR5X memory directly integrated into the CPU package, the Core Ultra 5-238V eliminates the need for separate memory modules, reducing latency and improving overall system responsiveness. This seamless integration results in faster data transfer rates and lower power consumption with LPDDR5X memory running at 8533 MT.

Applications that demand intensive memory usage, such as video editing, 3D rendering, and high-end gaming, will be the first to experience performance gains. Users can expect smoother multitasking, quicker load times, and more efficient handling of memory-intensive tasks. The Core Ultra 5-238V is equipped with four big Lion Cove and four little Skymont cores, in combination with seven Xe2-LPG cores based on Battlemage GPU microarchitecture. The bigger siblings to Core Ultra 5, the Core Ultra 7 series, will feature eight Xe2-LPG cores instead of seven, with the same CPU core count, while all of them will run the fourth generation NPU.

Intel is readying the new N250 "Twin Lake" line of low-power processors that succeed the N200 series "Alder Lake-N" series. These are chips built on the latest process node Intel is using for its Core and Xeon processors, but only features E-cores (efficiency codes) from the latest microarchitecture. Chips from the N200 series are popular with low-cost notebooks, thin-clients, embedded systems, kiosks and point-of-sale terminals, NAS, and consumer electronics. "Twin Lake" is codename for the new processor series, these are likely monolithic processor dies that use a client ringbus layout, and one E-core cluster that makes up the compute muscle.

While "Alder Lake-N" is powered by "Gracemont" E-cores, the new "Twin Lake" chips are expected to feature "Skymont" E-core clusters. Intel is expected to debut "Skymont" E-cores with its upcoming Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake-MX" mobile processors. "Skymont" is technically two generations ahead of "Gracemont," as Intel introduced the "Crestmont" cores with its current Core Ultra 100 "Meteor Lake" processor family. Not a lot is known about "Skymont" at this point, except that it's expected to feature IPC increases, and perform close to Intel's P-cores from 3-4 generations ago, such as the "Willow Cove" cores powering the 11th Gen Core "Tiger Lake" processors, looking at past trends of the "Gracemont" core performing similar to a "Skylake" core with HTT disabled.

Intel's CEO, Pat Gelsinger, has confirmed that the upcoming 18A process of the Panther Lake CPU generation is on schedule for a mid-2025 release, which aligns with the initial projection. This development marks a significant milestone in the company's ongoing efforts to integrate AI capabilities into its processors. The mid-2025 release date is expected to follow the debut of Intel's Arrow Lake process in late 2024 or early 2025, a release that holds the promise of significant advancements in AI computing. During Intel's Q1 2024 Quarterly Results, Gelsinger expressed confidence in the company's AI capabilities, stating that the Core Ultra platform currently delivers leadership AI performance and that the next-generation platforms, Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake, will launch later this year, tripling AI performance. He also mentioned that the Panther Lake generation, set to release in 2025, will grow AI performance up to an additional 2x.

The Panther Lake generation represents the culmination of three generations of work in a short time and is expected to continue Intel's iterative approach. This transition is marked by a shift from a hybrid architecture, a combination of different types of processors, to a disaggregated die, where different components of the processor are separated, as AI computing becomes increasingly prominent. This strategic move is aimed at optimizing AI performance and flexibility. This marks the third generation of the Intel Core Ultra series, following Ultra 100 (Meteor Lake), Ultra 200 (Arrow Lake), and Lunar Lake (200V). Intel's release strategy mirrors the pattern set by the Hybrid Architecture, with Alder Lake debuting in 2021, followed by Raptor Lake in 2022, and a refreshed Raptor Lake released last year to bridge the gap until LGA 1851 was ready. However, Intel's roadmap has seen adjustments in the past, such as the initial promise of an Arrow Lake release before the end of 2024, which was later retracted. The mid-2025 release of Panther Lake aligns with rumors of Arrow Lake's late 2024 or early 2025 debut, suggesting that the 18A process CPU generation could debut several months after Arrow Lake.

Hardware leaker Raichu, known for accurately predicting Intel's moves, has unveiled intriguing details about the company's forthcoming desktop CPU lineup. According to the leaks, Intel is supposed to introduce a big shift in its desktop CPU naming convention with the arrival of the Core Ultra 200 series, codenamed Arrow Lake-S. This next-generation lineup promises to deliver one of the most significant performance leaps for desktop processors in recent years, marking a substantial departure from Intel's current naming strategy—a change that hasn't been witnessed in over a decade. The Core Ultra 200 series is expected to encompass a diverse range of tiers and variants, catering to various user needs. This includes the overclockable K models for enthusiasts, F variants without integrated graphics, and potentially low-power T models for energy-efficient SKUs. According to Raichu's leaks, the unlocked K-Series models are rumored to include the high-end Core Ultra 9 285K, the mid-range Core Ultra 7 265K, and the budget-friendly Core Ultra 5 245K. While the absence of a 290K part has raised eyebrows, these names resemble Intel's mobile CPU naming conventions.

To enjoy the Core Ultra 200 series, users will need to upgrade to new motherboards featuring the 800-series chipsets and the LGA-1851 socket. Unlike the Core Ultra 200V Lunar Lake models for mobile devices, details about the desktop version have remained scarce, shrouding the impending launch in an air of mystery. While Raichu's leaks carry significant weight, it's essential to approach such information cautiously. There's a possibility that SKUs like the 290K may still be introduced, as a new KS version, aligning with Intel's traditional naming conventions. The Core Ultra 200 series promises to cater to a wide range of desktop users, from the performance-hungry enthusiasts eyeing the Core Ultra 9 285K to budget-conscious consumers seeking the value proposition of the Core Ultra 5 245K. The Core Ultra 7 265K is expected to strike a balance between performance and affordability, targeting the mid-range segment. As more leaks and official information surface, we will continue to provide updates on this release from Intel.

Intel at its VISION conference, confirmed that its next-generation processor for the ultraportable and thin-and-light segments, the Core Ultra "Lunar Lake," will feature an over four-fold increase in NPU performance, which will be as fast as 45 TOPS. This is a significant figure, as Microsoft recently announcedthat Copilot will perform several tasks locally (on the device), provided it has an NPU capable of at least 40 TOPS. The current AI Boost NPU found in Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" processor is no faster than 10 TOPS, and the current AMD Ryzen 8040 series features a Ryzen AI NPU with 16 TOPS on tap. AMD's upcoming Ryzen "Strix Point" processor is rumored to feature a similar 40 TOPS-class NPU performance as "Lunar Lake."

Intel also confirmed that notebooks powered by Core Ultra "Lunar Lake" processors will hit the shelves by Christmas 2024 (December). These notebooks will feature not just the 45 TOPS NPU, but also debut Intel's Arc Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture as the processor's integrated graphics solution. With Microsoft's serious push for standardizing AI assistants, the new crop of notebooks could also feature Copilot as a fixed-function button on their keyboards, similar to the Win key that brings up the Start menu.

Microsoft, Intel, and AMD are attempting to jumpstart demand in the PC industry again, under the aegis of the AI PC—devices with native acceleration for AI workloads. Both Intel and AMD have mobile processors with on-silicon NPUs (neural processing units), which are designed to accelerate the first wave of AI-enhanced client experiences on Windows 11 23H2. Microsoft's bulwark with democratizing AI has been Copilot, as a licensee of Open AI GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, Dali, and other generative AI tools from the Open AI stable. Copilot is currently Microsoft's most heavily invested application, with its most capital and best minds mobilized to making it the most popular AI assistant. Microsoft even pushed for the AI PC designator to PC OEMs, which requires them to have a dedicated Copilot key akin to the Start key (we'll see how anti-competition regulators deal with that).

The problem with Microsoft's tango with Intel and AMD to push AI PCs, is that Copilot doesn't really use an NPU, not even at the edge—you input a query or a prompt, and Copilot hands it over to a cloud-based AI service. This is about to change, with Microsoft announcing that Copilot will be able to run locally on AI PCs. Microsoft identified several kinds of Copilot use-cases that an NPU can handle on-device, which should speed up response times to Copilot queries, but this requires the NPU to have at least 40 TOPS of performance. This is a problem for the current crop of processors with NPUs. Intel's Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" has an AI Boost NPU with 10 TOPS on tap, while the Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" is only slightly faster, with a 16 TOPS Ryzen AI NPU. AMD has already revealed that the XDNA 2-based 2nd Generation Ryzen AI NPU in its upcoming "Strix Point" processors will come with over 40 TOPS of performance, and it stands to reason that the NPUs in Intel's "Arrow Lake" or "Lunar Lake" processors are comparable in performance; which should enable on-device Copilot.

Intel Core Ultra "Lunar Lake-MX" will be the company's bulwark against Apple's M-series Pro and Max chips, designed to power the next crop of performance ultraportables. The MX codename extension denotes MoP (memory-on-package), which sees stacked LPDDR5X memory chips share the package's fiberglass substrate with the chip, to conserve PCB footprint, and give Intel greater control over the right kind of memory speed, timings, and power-management features suited to its microarchitecture. This is essentially what Apple does with its M-series SoCs powering its MacBooks and iPad Pros. Igor's Lab scored the motherlode on the way Intel has restructured the various components across its chiplets, and the various I/O wired to the package.

When compared to "Meteor Lake," the "Lunar Lake" microarchitecture sees a small amount of "re-aggregation" of the various logic-heavy components of the processor. On "Meteor Lake," the CPU cores and the iGPU sat on separate tiles—Compute tile and Graphics tile, respectively, with a large SoC tile sitting between them, and a smaller I/O tile that serves as an extension of the SoC tile. All four tiles sat on top of a Foveros base tile, which is essentially an interposer—a silicon die that facilitates high-density microscopic wiring between the various tiles that are placed on top of it. With "Lunar Lake," there are only two tiles—the Compute tile, and the SoC tile.

Samsung's next-generation Galaxy Book 5 Pro premium thin-and-light notebook is expected to incorporate Intel's upcoming Core Ultra "Lunar Lake" processor, and Arc Xe2 graphics, which "Lunar Lake" implements with its iGPU solution. Intel is expected to debut both "Lunar Lake" and "Battlemage" toward the end of 2024. A prototype of this Samsung notebook is already up and running, probably using engineering samples of the two chips. It came to light as keen-eyed enthusiasts noticed new benchmark entries on the SiSoft SANDRA online database. Here, the processor is shown featuring an 8-core (4P+4E) configuration, while the iGPU features a 4 Xe2 core configuration, which works out to 512 unified shaders. The P-cores of the CPU tick at 2.80 GHz, the E-cores at 1.65 GHz, and the iGPU at 1.85 GHz.

There is some confidence behind removing HTT (Hyper-Threading technology) for the P-cores of its upcoming processor generations. Apparently "Lunar Lake" 17 W U-segment processors offer a substantial multithreaded performance gain of almost 50% over the current-generation "Meteor Lake," enabling Intel to do away with the power- or cache overheads that come with HTT. "Lunar Lake" will be Intel's third microarchitecture powering mobile processors under the Core Ultra brand; and its U-segment SKUs meant for ultraportables will come with processor base power values of 17 W. Intel will probably revise its platform specifications for the U-segment to denote 17 W, up from the current 15 W. Bionic Squash, a reliable source with Intel leaks, suggests so. The processors will come with a configurable base power of up to 30 W.

Intel "Lunar Lake" microarchitecture has a lot in common with the upcoming "Arrow Lake." For starters, both microarchitectures use the same combination of "Lion Cove" P-core architecture, and "Skymont" E-core architecture; however "Lunar Lake" comes with changes in the core-configuration, and the use of more advanced foundry nodes for some of its tiles. "Lunar Lake," much like "Meteor Lake," comes with a design priority for mobile platforms, which is why Intel is planning to launch this shortly after "Arrow Lake," with some reports even speaking of a late-2024 debut for the U-segment.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger engaged with press/media representatives following the conclusion of his IFS Direct Connect 2024 keynote speech—when asked about Team Blue's ongoing relationship with TSMC, he confirmed that their manufacturing agreement has advanced from "5 nm to 3 nm." According to a China Times news article: "Gelsinger also confirmed the expansion of orders to TSMC, confirming that TSMC will hold orders for Intel's Arrow and Lunar Lake CPU, GPU, and NPU chips this year, and will produce them using the N3B process, officially ushering in the Intel notebook platform that the outside world has been waiting for many years." Past leaks have indicated that Intel's Arrow Lake processor family will have CPU tiles based on their in-house 20A process, while TSMC takes care of the GPU tile aspect with their 3 nm N3 process node.

That generation is expected to launch later this year—the now "officially confirmed" upgrade to 3 nm should produce pleasing performance and efficiency improvements. The current crop of Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" mobile processors has struggled with the latter, especially when compared to rivals. Lunar Lake is marked down for a 2025 launch window, so some aspects of its internal workings remain a mystery—Gelsinger has confirmed that TSMC's N3B is in the picture, but no official source has disclosed their in-house manufacturing choice(s) for LNL chips. Wccftech believes that Lunar Lake will: "utilize the same P-Core (Lion Cove) and brand-new E-Core (Skymont) core architecture which are expected to be fabricated on the 20A node. But that might also be limited to the CPU tile. The GPU tile will be a significant upgrade over the Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake CPUs since Lunar Lake ditches Alchemist and goes for the next-gen graphics architecture codenamed "Battlemage" (AKA Xe2-LPG)." Late January whispers pointed to Intel and TSMC partnering up on a 2 nanometer process for the "Nova Lake" processor generation—perhaps a very distant prospect (2026).

HXL (@9550pro) has highlighted an intriguing pinned post on the Chinese Zhihu community site—where XZiar, a self described "Central Processing Unit (CPU) expert," has shared a very fuzzy/low quality screenshot of a Windows Task Manager session. The information on display indicates that a "Genuine Intel(R) 0000 1.0 GHz" processor was in use—perhaps a very early Lunar Lake (LNL) engineering sample (ES1). XZiar confirmed the pre-release nature of the onboard chip, and teased its performance prowess: "It's good to use the craftsmanship that others have stepped on. It can run 2.8 GHz with only A1 step, and it is very smooth."

The "A1" designation implies that the leaked sample is among the first LNL processor prototypes to exit manufacturing facilities—Intel previewed its "Lunar Lake-MX" SoC package to press representatives last November. XZiar's followers have pored over the screenshot and ascertained that the leaked example sports a "8-core + 8-thread, without Hyperthreading, 4P+4LPE" configuration. Others were confused by the chip's somewhat odd on-board cache designations—L1: 836 KB, L2: 14 MB and L3: 12 MB—XZiar believes that prototype's setup "is obviously not up to par," when a replier compares the spec to an N300 series processor. It is theorized that Windows Task Manager is simply not fully capable of detecting the sample's full makeup, but XZiar reckons that 12 MB of L3 cache is the correct figure.

Intel appears to working on an intriguing next generation adaptive sharpening filter—as revealed in mid-week published patch notes. Lunar Lake's display engine seems to be the lucky recipient here—its Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture is expected to debut later this year. Second generation Intel Arc integrated graphics solutions have been linked to mobile Lunar Lake (LNL) processors—driver enablement was uncovered by Phoronix last September. The notes reveal that Team Blue is exploring a more intelligent approach to improving visual enhancements across games and productivity applications.

Author, Nemesa Garg (an engineer at Intel India) stated: "Many a times images are blurred or upscaled content is also not as crisp as original rendered image. Traditional sharpening techniques often apply a uniform level of enhancement across entire image, which sometimes result in over-sharpening of some areas and potential loss of natural details. Intel has come up with Display Engine based adaptive sharpening filter with minimal power and performance impact. From LNL onwards, the Display hardware can use one of the pipe scaler for adaptive sharpness filter. This can be used for both gaming and non-gaming use cases like photos, image viewing. It works on a region of pixels depending on the tap size."