What just happened? Speaking on the sidelines of the IFS Direct 2024 event, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger confirmed that TSMC will manufacture the Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake CPU, GPU, and NPU chips this year. According to Gelsinger, the Arrow Lake CPUs will be built on TSMC's 3nm N3 process node, while Lunar Lake will utilize the Taiwanese firm's N3B node. The company had earlier confirmed that both Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake will debut later this year.
Gelsinger also announced that Intel is aiming to be the world's second-largest wafer foundry by 2030. The company is currently playing catch-up with TSMC, with its 18A process said to be equivalent to the latter's N3P node.
As per Intel's product roadmap, Arrow Lake will use the Intel 20A process, while Lunar Lake will utilize 18A. Both will be equipped with PowerVia and RibbonFET transistor designs.
Intel this week also revealed that it will use the Xe-LPG iGPU architecture for its Arrow Lake-S desktop CPUs, while the Arrow Lake-H laptop processors will come with the newer Xe-LPG+ graphics.
There are no official details on exactly what upgrades Xe-LPG+ will bring over the older Xe-LPG, but the latest updates for the Intel C for Metal compiler (via Coelacanth's Dream) have revealed that the newer architecture will add support for the Dot Product Accumulate Systolic (DPAS) technology, which is said to aid matrix multiplication and accumulation.
We already know that Arrow Lake-S will succeed the 13th/14th-gen Raptor Lake lineups for desktops and will use the brand-new LGA 1851 socket. On the other hand, Arrow Lake-H will be the follow-up to the Meteor Lake-H and Raptor Lake-H platforms for laptops. Both the desktop and mobile variants are expected to come with new Lion Cove P-Cores and Crestmont/Skymont E-Cores.
Last month, Gelsinger revealed that the Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake lineups will triple the AI performance of Intel processors, presumably over Meteor Lake and Raptor Lake. He also claimed that the company is targeting a further 2x improvement in AI performance with Panther Lake that's expected to hit the market next year.