Intel has reached a major milestone today with its most advanced node, Intel 18A, destined for both client (Panther Lake) and server (Clearwater Forest) CPUs. The company has confirmed that both Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest have successfully left the lab, powered on, and booted into an operating system. This achievement comes less than six months after they were taped out, highlighting the rapid progress of Intel’s silicon development. This signifies Intel’s confidence in starting production for Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest sometime in 2025.
Intel’s groundbreaking 18A process node has also been adopted by an external customer, with the first chips expected to be taped out in 2025. These chips will feature Intel’s innovative RibbonFET and PowerVIA technologies, available to all customers.
Intel’s next-generation Panther Lake CPUs are expected to arrive as the Core Ultra 300 series, following the release of the Core Ultra 200 series “Arrow Lake” CPUs later this year, and the Core Ultra 200V series “Lunar Lake” shortly after. Panther Lake, designed primarily for mobile devices, will boast up to 16 cores and 12 Xe3-GPU cores, with no desktop versions planned. Dell is anticipated to be the first to integrate Intel’s next-gen Panther Lake CPU architecture into its products, expected to hit the market sometime in 2026.
In a post on X, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger expressed his pride in the team’s progress: “Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest, lead products on Intel 18A, are out of the fab, powered on, have booted operating systems, and are on track to start production next year. Additionally, Intel 18A has brought together two critical innovations to enable customers to make leaps in scale and power efficiency: RibbonFET gate-all-around and PowerVia backside power technology – an industry first for foundry customers.” He concluded, “I’m proud of the team’s progress. Intel Foundry will continue to fuel next-gen innovation for our customers and pave the way for the first systems foundry for the AI era.”
