By Today at Computex, Intel introduces Lunar Lake, the newest laptop CPU in its Core Ultra series. This marks the beginning of a new generation of AI-enhanced Copilot+ PCs, which were previously eclipsed by Qualcomm.
If you have heard this before, stop us: Low power is Intel’s top priority, maybe in response to Qualcomm’s recently released Snapdragon X Elite. However, several changes to Lunar Lake’s architecture, such as switching all of the E-cores to a low-power architecture, led to power savings and performance increases. The brains behind Intel’s “Battlemage,” the Xe2 GPU, are now available. And hyperthreading, too? Vanished.
However, as a prospective laptop customer, you should be aware of a very significant change: Intel is now integrating the DRAM into the processor packaging. Yes, the memory of the PC. You will currently be able to choose between 16GB and 32GB of DRAM if you purchase a laptop made by Lunar Lake, but there is no way to expand it afterward.
Indeed, artificial intelligence exists. At Computex, Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger stated, “Every device will be an AI device.” Every business will utilize AI.
This narrative delves deeply into Lunar Lake, so feel free to skip to the part you are interested in. We anticipate that Intel will eventually sell Lunar Lake as the unofficial 15th-generation Core CPU, known as the Intel Core Ultra Series 2.
Now, all of the Lunar Lake e-core is low power.
There are two significant differences between the CPU designs you are familiar with and Intel’s Lunar Lake. First off, the efficiency core referred to as “Skymont” no longer ships with the low-power E-core that was included with its predecessor, Meteor Lake; instead, all Skymont E-cores are fundamentally low-power E-cores.
A more significant twist is that hyperthreading has been turned off everywhere. For performance purposes, there is just one thread connected to each core. Not even the “Lion Cove” performance cores are multithreaded. Later, more on that.
Four E-cores and four P-cores make up Lunar Lake. Lead architect for the new Skymont E-core and Intel fellow Stephen Robinson explained that E-cores should be thought of as a “brick,” at least for this generation. This suggests that Lunar Lake products will have blocks of four E-cores each, making the possibility of a Lunar Lake chip with six E-cores extremely unlikely.
