TL;DR: Intel gave us a sneak peek at what’s coming down the pipeline throughout its newest earnings name, and it is clear the chip big goes all-in on synthetic intelligence for its subsequent main CPU platform. CEO Pat Gelsinger reaffirmed that the corporate’s upcoming 18A course of Panther Lake CPUs are progressing easily and on observe for launch in mid-2025.
This next-gen chip structure seems to be the end result of Intel’s current concentrate on AI computing efficiency. Gelsinger made some daring claims, stating that Panther Lake will ship as much as 2x higher AI muscle over the prior Arrow Lake chips coming later this yr. If Intel can ship on these sorts of gen-over-gen features, we may very well be in for some superb AI throughput numbers.
Panther Lake represents the third iteration of Intel’s disaggregated design for its Core Extremely collection, following Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake. This modular strategy, splitting processing elements throughout a number of tiled chiplets, is a departure from the corporate’s prior hybrid structure used for Alder Lake and Raptor Lake.
The shift to chiplets has allowed Intel to go broader and bolder with AI-focused elements. Gelsinger stated the corporate’s “execution engine” timeline is firing on all cylinders, with 5 new course of nodes in manufacturing over simply 4 years – an extremely aggressive cadence.
“Intel 20A, which helps pave the best way for Intel 18A, begins manufacturing ramp within the second half of this yr with Arrow Lake […] We count on to launch the 1.0 PDK for Intel 18A this quarter. Moreover, our lead merchandise, Clearwater Forest and Panther Lake are already in fab, and we count on to start manufacturing ramp of Intel 18A in these merchandise within the first half of ’25 for product launch in the midst of subsequent yr,” Gelsinger acknowledged.
Beforehand, on the This fall 2023 earnings name, Gelsinger revealed that Intel is engaged on boosting the AI efficiency of its x86 processors by as a lot as six occasions within the subsequent few generations.
If Intel can certainly keep on schedule, the rapid-fire tempo of those AI-accelerating chip upgrades may assist it achieve essential floor in opposition to rivals like Nvidia and AMD within the white-hot AI arms race.
Within the meantime, Intel is pushing arduous to drive adoption of its present Core Extremely lineup that was launched in December. The corporate expects to double CPU shipments this quarter as provide constraints ease. By yr’s finish, Intel goals to have over 40 million AI-enhanced PCs within the wild throughout its Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, and Lunar Lake product stacks.
We’re additionally about to see Intel’s new server chips roll out, led by the Sierra Forest Xeon 6 household constructed on Intel 3 and packing an enormous 288 cores. The 128-core Granite Rapids will comply with on the heels of Sierra Forest for information heart deployments.
