Intel’s performance-enhanced 18A-P process enters risk production — drop-in 18A upgrade promises 9% performance improvement at iso-power, cuts thermal resistance by 40%

An Intel Panther Lake SoC. .

Following a paper published earlier this year, Intel has provided more details on its optimized 18A-P process at VLSI 2026. The performance-optimized node is an enhancement of 18A that Intel is using in products like Panther Lake and Xeon 6+, promising a 9% improvement in performance at the same power, or an 18% reduction in power consumption at the same performance level. In addition to greater technical detail, Intel has revealed that 18A-P has entered risk production.

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