Intel Wildcat Lake CPU tooling surfaces in transport manifests — reportedly adopts next-gen Cougar Cove and Darkmont cores, Intel 18A node
As CPU lovers anticipate Intel’s Panther Lake CPUs subsequent yr, the company might be going engaged on various totally different undisclosed initiatives. Definitely one in all them is Wildcat Lake, allegedly succeeding the Alder Lake-N “Intel Processor” lineup, catering to the lightweight laptop computer pc and mini-PC market (by way of x86deadandback). Whereas we do not need additional information than a few transport manifests detailing the BGA socket kind and CPUID, rely on these processors to succeed in sometime in 2025.
Intel’s current product segmentation positions Lunar Lake as a singular, one-off design to eclipse the rivals in effectivity whereas delivering robust effectivity. Conversely, Panther Lake-H will succeed Arrow Lake-H, making it exhausting to pinpoint Wildcat Lake’s placement in Intel’s cell roadmap. Architecturally, its design is rumored to utilize a P+LPE core combination, very like Lunar Lake. Nonetheless, totally different sources hint that Wildcat Lake resembles Alder Lake-N or the now-abandoned Pentium and Celeron sequence. These CPUs are utilized in skinny Chromebooks, embedded devices, NAS, and residential servers, you establish it. If true, this can in all probability be pretty the leap for the mini-PC market, considering Alder Lake’s age.
The shipments appear to have slipped beneath our radar, courting once more to October 30 this yr. The listings level out CPU reball jigs or reballing stations for the BGA 1516 socket, measuring 35 x 25 mm, the an identical socket that helps these new Wildcat Lake processors. That’s liable to prep these CPUs for RVPs (Reference Validation Platforms) by making use of solder balls on the underside of the chip.
Intel WILDCAT LAKE Socket Based mostly!BGA 1516 = 35mm*25mm: pic.twitter.com/sw7t02JCpjDecember 18, 2024
It is too early to take a place about Wildcat Lake’s specs, because it’s perhaps nonetheless in early development. Nonetheless, the chips are anticipated to be fabricated using the 18A course of. Likewise, Panther Lake, moreover constructed on 18A, has ES0 samples ready with eight OEMs per Intel. This development is a significant improve for Intel Foundry since a minimal of two merchandise on its flagship node are more than likely current course of validation as we talk.
Furthermore, speculation abounds that Wildcat Lake choices next-gen Cougar Cove P-cores and Darkmont LPE-cores in a 2P+4LPE configuration. This unconventional core format seemingly signifies that the P and LPE cores don’t share a hoop bus, mirroring Lunar Lake.
A significant selling degree behind Lunar Lake is Xe2. Whereas Intel is already engaged on Xe4, we’d not see Xe3 (Celestial) sooner than late 2025 and even 2026. This, coupled with the absence of two P-cores, makes Wildcat Lake extraordinarily unlikely to supersede Lunar Lake, nonetheless it is perhaps well-suited for the sub-10W part.
