Intel Nova Lake to include up to four low-power E-cores

Intel's upcoming Nova Lake-S architecture might be even more powerful than previously thought. Rumours suggest a core count of 52, not the initially reported 48. This news arrives alongside whispers of a potential rethink regarding an Arrow Lake Refresh, although details about this are still scarce.

More concrete information is emerging about Nova Lake, the successor to Arrow Lake. Last week's speculation pointed towards four Nova Lake variants targeting desktop, mainstream, and low-power laptop segments. Leaker Jaykihn has corroborated these claims and provided additional insights on the upcoming architecture.

A key feature of the Nova Lake series appears to be the inclusion of low-power (LP) efficient cores. While these LP-Cores are typical of mobile devices, boosting efficiency for background tasks, they haven't yet made their way into desktop designs. According to Jaykihn, the projected core configurations for Nova Lake desktop CPUs are as follows: Nova Lake-SK will pack 52 cores (16P + 32E + 4LP), Nova Lake-HX is expected to feature 28 cores (8P + 16E + 4LP), and Nova Lake-H/S will have 16 cores (4P + 8E + 4LP). Nova Lake-U isn't mentioned regarding having any LP E-cores, so we assume it won't have any for now.

The leaker also “confirmed” that Nova Lake will use Coyote Cove P-Cores and Arctic Wolf E/LP-Cores. Furthermore, Jaykihn corroborates previous rumours of a 144 MB Compute Tile. However, it's crucial to remember that these configurations are still preliminary, and Intel has yet to confirm a Nova Lake tape-out. Therefore, these figures remain theoretical for now.

KitGuru says: Do you think including LP E-cores in desktop platforms will bring any significant advantage over competing products?

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