Intel has confirmed that the upcoming 18A process Panther Lake CPU generation is on track for a mid-2025 release date.
As confirmed in the company's Q1 2024 Quarterly Results, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger reaffirmed that the new upcoming 18A chipset line is being fabricated right now. That puts the processors on track to be coming out about a year from now.
Gelsinger said in the earnings call: "The Core Ultra platform delivers leadership AI performance today with our next-generation platforms launching later this year, Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake tripling our AI performance." Continuing with bold claims for its future tech: "In 2025 with Panther Lake, we will grow AI performance up to an additional 2x".
It's the culmination of what Team Blue has described as its 'Execution Engine' with five new process nodes in production over four years. It began with the Intel 7 process, codenamed Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids (Xeon) to Intel 4's Meteor Lake (Ultra), and the upcoming Intel 20A Arrow Lake process.
Intel's roadmap still hazy, but definitely progressing...
Gelsinger's statement tracks with what we know from the current development of Arrow Lake which is rumored to be coming in early 2025. That positions the next generation with 18A process to debut a several months afterwards. It's an ambitious plan, and should the trajectory track, then AI computing could be moving at rates we haven't seen to date.
From the current roadmap, it's clear that Panther Lake will continue this level of iteration as the company moves from the hybrid architecture over to a disaggregated die as AI computing plays more of a role. Essentially, this will mean it's a third-generation Intel Core Ultra series, following on from Ultra 100 (Meteor Lake), Ultra 200 (Arrow Lake), and Lunar Lake (200V).
This is a release strategy that we've seen happen with the Hybrid Architecture with LGA 1700 starting with Alder Lake in 2021, then Raptor Lake a year later, and a refreshed Raptor Lake released last year to tide consumers over until LGA 1851 was ready, which we're still waiting on now.
However, this isn't the first time that Intel has doubled down on its roadmap's developments. Back in September, Gelsinger made promises that Arrow Lake would hit before 2024 is over, but we've since heard conflicting information that it could be coming later. With Panther Lake now in production, this time next year would track for the CPU generation to arrive, but we wouldn't be surprised if it comes out later than anticipated.
...while Team Blue goes all in on AI in the meantime
It's no secret that the implementation of AI computing has ushered in a new era for Team Blue with the company switching gears from its winning formula with the Hyrbid Architecture and bringing in Disaggregated.
Panther Lake looks to be the culmination of three generations of work in a short period of time as the NPU gets more sophisticated, whether it pays off or not remains to be seen.
