For the first time in more than two decades, Intel is moving past its long-standing CPU classification system in favor of a new one. With Nova Lake, the company’s next generation of processors, Intel is signaling the end of the Family 6 era that has defined x86 processors since the late ’90s. This change was unearthed as part of the Linux enablement Intel is doing for Nova Lake as we speak.
The initial patch, spotted in the Linux kernel mailing list by Phoronix, introduces Nova Lake under a brand-new identifier: Family 18. This marks a clean break from the legacy Family 6 framework, which has carried everything from Pentium Pro to Arrow Lake. The move required significant refactoring in previous kernel releases, ensuring Linux code could adapt to architectures beyond Family 6.
