Intel "Nova Lake-S" Tapes Out on TSMC N2 Node

[AleksandarK]

Intel's next-generation client CPU staple product, "Nova Lake-S", has reportedly taped out of TSMC's fabs in Taiwan. Our previous speculation from the rumor mill suggested that Intel would utilize its own internal 18A node, with help from TSMC's 2 nm high-volume manufacturing. According to SemiAccurate, Intel has taped out a compute tile on TSMC's N2 node, meaning that Nova Lake-S will likely utilize a mix of 18A and TSMC N2 for its compute tiles. A possible reason for this decision is that Intel is building a chain of fall-backs to rely on in case its 18A node doesn't deliver, or it anticipates demand so high that its internal manufacturing capacity can't provide. Either way, clients can expect the product to be delivered on time in H2 of 2026, but under the hood, some interesting solutions may be present.

As far as the exact date, the time from a tapeout to final product is months away. Right now, the taped-out silicon tile is being powered on in Intel's labs and tested, running various test cases that stress out the silicon for multiple use cases and check for correctness of operation. Typically, power on takes a few weeks to a month to achieve, and final high-volume manufacturing will commence only a few months later. From that point, another two to three months are needed for manufacturing and shipping the product, meaning that Q3 of 2026 is the most likely target for Nova Lake-S. As a reminder, the CPU will combine 52 cores (16 P-cores, 32 E-cores, and four LPE-cores) paired with 8,800 MT/s memory controller and Xe3 "Celestial" for graphics rendering and Xe4 "Druid" for media and display duties, making it definitely an interesting product, as well as a difficult manufacturing target due to the heterogenous complexity.



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[bug]

Imagine being a Win10 holdout and having your threads inadvertently sent to the LPE cores

 

[RejZoR]

Imagine being a Win10 holdout and having your threads inadvertently sent to the LPE cores

Though in honesty, if you really want a problem free experience, you avoid that with AMD as well. They don't have different cores, but they had different core arrangements that did cause problems. It's why I picked 5800X, because it's all big cores, single CCD. There is NOTHING that can schedule anything in a wrong way. Where initial Ryzens had quite a lot of issues when same workload was split between 2 CCD's Even latest 9950X3D that's the pinnacle of AMD's tech, while everyone hyped that with latest Windows scheduler updates and AMD's new chipset drivers, it was addressed, but can you ever be sure it's working exactly as it should? You can say that for certainty with 5800X/X3D or with 9800X3D, but not with 9950X.

I'd have no problem buying lets say laptop with Intel CPU with P+E cores and be running Linux on it coz it'll just run whatever. But for power desktop, I'd still be hesitating. I just don't think Windows is mature enough with different core arrangements and utilizing them well. Ideal would be that heavy loads run on all cores as they just benefit from raw threads number, for games, ideally system tasks would run entirely on E cores and game exclusively on P cores so game really can max out those P cores. But I have doubts it's really that way...

Either way, I hope Intel will come back in action. AMD has been killing it for a bit too long now and they need some competition from Intel to not fall asleep.

 

[bug]

What I meant is LPE sticks out on the desktop like a sore thumb.

 

[phints]

Imagine being a Win10 holdout and having your threads inadvertently sent to the LPE cores

It's a 10 year old deprecated MS OS who would use 2026 hardware on ancient garbage?

 

[bug]

It's a 10 year old deprecated MS OS who would use 2026 hardware on ancient garbage?

There's no shortage of those that still don't get telemetry and will do anything to stay away.

 

[N/A]

There is no mixing 18A for desktop. Just like intel 4 for meteor lake and intel 3 for Xeon 6, 18A is for panther lake and Xeon 7. Hopefully the SoC gets N4 treatment.

 

[nepnep]

What I meant is LPE sticks out on the desktop like a sore thumb.

Probably exists purely because HX on mobile shares desktop silicon.

 

[Mr. Perfect]

The most interesting part here is that they'll have both Xe3 and Xe4 shipping in some form by the end of 2026. I suppose that's to soon for Xe4 desktop cards though, they'd barely have time to get the Xe3 cards out the door.

 

[Tek-Check]

It seems Intel does not have confidence in 18A for new desktop generation.

 

[Squared]

Kind of odd combining Celestial GPU with Druid media and display hardware. That makes me think the GPU tile will be borrowed from Panther Lake (which uses only Celestial).

What I meant is LPE sticks out on the desktop like a sore thumb.

Windows 10 is being decommissioned this October. Despite wanting to hold out I think all my computers will have to move to PopOS or Windows 11 at that time.

 

[ThomasK]

"A possible reason for this decision is that Intel is building a chain of fall-backs to rely on in case its 18A node doesn't deliver, or it anticipates demand so high that its internal manufacturing capacity can't provide."

I'd place my bets on the former, but the fact that TSMC has to manufacture part of it says a lot about Intel's confidence on its 18A process. The latter would be probably due to low yields.

 

[JustBenching]

52 cores on a desktop (hoping 649$) CPU is nasty. Im getting this day one.

 

[LittleBro]

It was more than clear that Intel will use TSMC's 2N for next gen products when news back then 2024 published information about Intel reserving some capacity at TSMC.

 

[efikkan]

Tapeout usually happens a little over a year ahead of a launch window, assuming things go according to plan.

If Nova Lake was taped out around May-June this year, then we should expect Intel to have it running by October, early locked down samples to hardware partners by ~January (which is when we will start to see actual benchmark leaks, running at low clocks), followed by QS right before next summer, which is when e.g. game developers first get to see the clock speeds and performance characteristics its capable of.

This progression is important to know in order to expose all the fake "leaks" out there, like the ones claiming game developers have tried Nova Lake and Zen 6 running at certain clocks... Guys, please use common sense and don't fall for this. No one, including the manufacturer, knows the final clocks until the product launch is fairly imminent, a few months ahead. The fake leakers are just fabricating what people want to hear, and it doesn't matter if ~20-30% of their rumors are sort-of true, that's just qualified guessing, when they've been caught fabricating stuff we should never believe them again.

 

[Tyler-98-W68]

Though in honesty, if you really want a problem free experience, you avoid that with AMD as well.

Where are all these thread problems? Intel Thread director just plain works, and I've had 12 13 14th and Arrow Lake CPU's never once had any issues with the cores be misassigned in any workload i've used them on.

 

[RandallFlagg]

So this article refers to two sources, SemiAccurate and hardwareLUXX.

The hardwareLUXX article refers to the SemiAccurate article as its source.

The original SemiAccurate article doesn't even mention what chip is being taped out.

In fact, it's so short I'll quote the entire article here:

Intel taped out a major product a few weeks ago, a little late but they got there. SemiAccurate took longer than usual to confirm this one but we finally did.

Sorry, no hints this time.

That's it. That's what all the speculation on what chip this is, what tile, etc. is based on.

 

[RootinTootinPootin]

it was addressed, but can you ever be sure it's working exactly as it should?

it isn't only those measly single x3d ccd's work perfectly fine, otherwise, the windows scheduler still tries to wake the 2nd ccd while gaming..lol

 

[RejZoR]

it isn't only those measly single x3d ccd's work perfectly fine, otherwise, the windows scheduler still tries to wake the 2nd ccd while gaming..lol

Though, you'd want to have second CCD active, just not for the game. Otherwise, what's the point?! I'd want Windows and other crap to run on non-X3D cores and the game itself running exclusively on X3D cores, this way game would be entirely unaffected by whatever else is running in the background at any moment. If it just shuts down entire non-X3D CCD when playing games, that's just stupid as some Windows crap will be wasting CPU cycles that could exclusively be for the game.

When upgrading in the future, I'll stick with 9800X3D design of CPU... All cores of same type with same benefits. So you know whatever it's running on it is running as expected no matter what.

 

[Denver]

This is a bad sign for Intel's 18A, again Intel failing to have a verticalization advantage.

 

[RootinTootinPootin]

Though, you'd want to have second CCD active, just not for the game.

recent AGESA firmware updates and drivers tries to park the 2nd ccd (non 3d vcacne one) as much as possible while detecting gaming loads (either via the driver hooks or via the windows xbox game bar) still it dips, that's the only gripe I am having for the past few weeks, I just went back to my Intel Platform just to rid me off the stress..

 

[oxrufiioxo]

52 cores on a desktop (hoping 649$) CPU is nasty. Im getting this day one.

It will be interesting how much power it requires and how they manage clock speed vs power. This has over double the cores but going from N3 to N2 only saves them about 30% power at the same performance or 15% more performance at the same power last I heard.


Hopefully the Ultra 5 is just 16P cores lol..... Not holding my breath on that one though.

 

[JustBenching]

It will be interesting how much power it requires and how they manage clock speed vs power. This has over double the cores but going from N3 to N2 only saves them about 30% power at the same performance or 15% more performance at the same power last I heard.

Im completely against the idea of a cpu "requiring" a certain amount of power. We are big boys here, we know where the bios button is located, we can set any power limits we want, don't plan to run any CPU above a plimit of 200. But to answer your question, I don't think Intel is going to stop making T cpus, and those are pl2 locked to 35 watts, so I guess that's how much power it will require

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Im completely against the idea of a cpu "requiring" a certain amount of power. We are big boys here, we know where the bios button is located, we can set any power limits we want, don't plan to run any CPU above a plimit of 200. But to answer your question, I don't think Intel is going to stop making T cpus, and those are pl2 locked to 35 watts, so I guess that's how much power it will require

Yeah the end user should be able to tweak it however they want. It will just be interesting if intel does set a say 200w limit or 250w limit how much that will limit it's MT performance obviously ST will be fine. I don't think intel will make a cpu for consumer desktop that at stock uses more than 300w unless it is a special edition like the KS line. I set whatever I use to 140w so I can't wait to see what this can do at that power level.

But I would rather have an all P core ultra 5 lol.... I just know the chances of that are close to 0.

 

[Dr. Dro]

"difficult manufacturing target due to the heterogenous complexity." Ka-ching...

Intel is playing with fire... Zen 6 X3D chips will steamroll this out of relevance in the DIY channel if it's not priced well, even if they turn out to be slower overall.

It's a 10 year old deprecated MS OS who would use 2026 hardware on ancient garbage?

Windows 10 22H2 is a solid stable image for an OS, in my opinion. It has next to no outstanding bugs and as of today, no compatibility issues. It's also the last version of Windows that had any sanity or cohesion in mind while it was being developed... and that's something nobody can deny.