Intel's Lunar Lake processors, which are still in the pipeline, are going to be targeted for ultra-thin laptops, hoping to ensure these thin machines have enormous oomph despite their slim nature.
This comes from Ian Curess on Twitter (via VideoCardz (opens in a new tab)), who learned from Intel's VP and GM of User Computing, Michelle Johnston Holthaus, that Lunar Lake is going to be a design brand new from the ground up, with a brand new architecture built with performance per watt in mind.
From @Intel @MJHolthaus: Lunar Lake is a new uArch CPU and design, built with performance/watt in mind for mobile devices. More information in the economic communication of January 2023, XNUMX
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In other words, efficiency is going to be king, and the low wattage is obviously going to make Lunar Lake chips an ideal alternative for laptops, while still offering plenty of grunt (relatively speaking). These processors are expected to arrive in late XNUMX or XNUMX, we heard on the grapevine.
Cutress assures us that Intel is supposed to have more to share on the subject at the end of the current month when the company's financial results are released on January XNUMX. So stay tuned, it's not going to be long before we know more precisely about Lunar Lake processors. going to bring to the table.
Analysis: Intel's focus on efficiency caters to mobile devices, but what about beefy desktop processors?
Intel's focus on efficiency is not surprising, as we've learned that it's a key factor for next-generation Meteor Lake.
In fact, with the current Raptor Lake processors, Intel has significantly increased the number of cores in efficiency across the entire XNUMXth generation lineup, and should do more on this front with the next generation. Meteor Lake gossip points to even more powerful cores on board: these are low-powered, juice-sucking cores, but they can really boost multi-core performance, especially in large numbers. In addition to this, Meteor Lake will introduce a completely new architecture for efficiency cores, which should lead to significant energy efficiency benefits.
Lunar Lake could still take bigger steps, as shared here, as the wording is pretty strong that these processors were designed with mobile efficiency in mind. Could that represent that Lunar Lake could just be laptop CPUs? Cutress does not comment on this, but we can theorize that it is a possibility.
After all, next-gen Meteor Lake seems to be firmly geared toward mobile performance, with rumors suggesting that due to a strong push for more performance cores, the maximum number of performance cores could be capped at six for the fourteenth. .th generation. (Remember that the high-end Raptor Lake Core i9 and i7 processors have eight performance cores, and the same goes for Alder Lake, so ditching a couple of those cores would be a pain on the desktop front.)
With Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake supposedly focusing on the efficiency side of the equation, it's starting to look like Arrow Lake, which is supposed to sit between these two as a fifteenth generation family, might be the only hope. for a shorter future. for those who want a new heavy desktop processor (Core i9).
As always, keep this speculation in mind and hopefully we'll be able to find out more about what Lunar Lake will look like on laptops or desktops when Intel releases its latest fiscal (full year) results. and associated comments, later in the first month of the year.
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