It hasn't exactly been the best year for Intel. The chip giant has faced major struggles recently with chips flopping and fab partners seemingly nowhere to be found. Even Bill Gates has lamented the current state of the company, but maybe the upcoming Nova Lake-S CPUs, will turn all that around.
We've seen a lot of rumours around the Nova Lake launch, and while some make more sense than others one has likely been confirmed. According to SemiAccurate (Via TechPowerUp) the next generation CPUs have been taped out on TSMC's N2 node in fabrication centres in Taiwan.
Well, kind of. SemiAccurate is actually pretty slim on the details.
"Intel taped out a major product a few weeks ago, a little late but they got there. SemiAccurate took longer than usual to confirm this one but we finally did.
"Sorry, no hints this time." reads the website. I guess that is semi-accurate.
Assuming this is the Nova Lake chipset, this likely confirms the hybrid nature of the tech, using a mix of both the N2 node as well as Intel's highly anticipated 18A node. It could be Intel has gone with a mix due to a lack of faith in the 18A, or just to maximise manufacturing capabilities with more fallback on the established N2 nodes.
The chase of Intel's 18A node is an interesting one. We expected to see these chips launch in PCs but it seems Intel just didn't have the faith to launch them. Of course with these CPUs only being taped out now, these processors could be a fair way off, with at least a few months being the norm from taped to manufacturing, let alone retail availability.
We'll likely be waiting at least a year to get our hands on these, but with delays around the 18A chipset maybe it'll be even longer. Hopefully we'll see the 18A powered Nova Lake chips before the end of 2026.
In terms of performance, the numbers look good. The CPUs are reportedly delivering up to 25% faster processing with up to 36% more efficiency than before. Intel's new chips are also rumoured to have over double the cores of its previous Arrow Lake's offerings. And though we'll probably be waiting another year for them, a new chip being taped down is always cause for celebration.
