Intel Panther Lake: Pat Gelsinger Says Makes Up to 2x Claims on AI Performance

Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, has made some bold claims about the company’s upcoming Panther Lake processor during the Q4 2023 earnings call.

According to Gelsinger, Panther Lake is set to deliver twice the AI performance over its predecessor, Arrow Lake.

Intel’s journey into AI acceleration began with Meteor Lake, the first product in the “Core Ultra” line. This was Intel’s first consumer product featuring a dedicated AI processor (NPU), a focal point in Intel’s marketing in recent weeks.

Following Meteor Lake, Intel plans to release Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake. These offerings are expected to provide a significant threefold increase in AI acceleration compared to Meteor Lake.

However, the real game-changer is set to be Panther Lake, which Gelsinger claims will deliver twice the performance of Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake. If realized, this would mean a sixfold increase in AI performance compared to the initial release, Meteor Lake.

The Core Ultra platform delivers leadership AI performance today with our next-generation platforms launching later this year, Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake tripling our AI performance. In 2025 with Panther Lake, we will grow AI performance up to an additional 2x.

Pat Gelsinger – Intel CEO (Q4 2023 Earnings Call)

Panther Lake: A New Era for Intel

Panther Lake, which is well underway in its design phase, marks Intel’s first consumer product based on the Intel 18A node. The product is scheduled to hit the market in 2025. According to the official roadmap, Panther Lake is positioned to follow the releases of Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake, which are set to debut this year.

The specific launch dates for each product may vary based on the form factor, with the desktop version of Arrow Lake expected this year and the mobile variant anticipated next year. There has also been speculation regarding a potential refresh for Arrow Lake, suggesting a doubling of the core count.

Gelsinger’s claims about Panther Lake indicate a promising future for Intel. The company seems to be focusing on power efficiency and advanced 3D stacking/packaging, which could produce chips that rival the best performance per watt.

We are first in the industry to have incorporated both gate-all-around and backside power delivery in a single process node, the latter unexpected two years ahead of our competition. Arrow Lake, our lead Intel 20A vehicle will launch this year. Intel 18A is expected to achieve manufacturing readiness in second half ’24, completing our five nodes in four year journey and bringing us back to process leadership. I am pleased to say that Clearwater Forest, our first Intel 18A part for servers has already gone into fab and Panther Lake for clients will be heading into Fab shortly.

But with respect to the manufacturing, I’ll just say, hey, we look at this every single day and we’re scrutinizing carefully our progress on 18A. And obviously the great news that we just described those Clearwater Forest taping out, that gives us a lot of confidence that 18A is healthy. That’s a major product for us. Panther Lake following that shortly.

Pat Gelsinger – Intel CEO (Q4 2023 Earnings Call)

In conclusion, Intel’s Panther Lake represents a significant leap in AI performance. If the claims made by CEO Pat Gelsinger hold true, we could be on the brink of a new era in computing, powered by Intel’s advanced AI capabilities.