Intel has recently revealed the success that they are having with the Intel 18A node that they are developing. This node will feature in the upcoming Panther Lake and Clearwater forest CPUs and is expected to enter production sometime in 2025. The news comes in the form of a Tweet from CEO Pat Gelsinger, stating that the 18A node is out of fab, and managed to boot operating systems. This is an outstanding achievement since it began just 6 months ago.
Here’s what Pat had to say:
We don’t have a solid release date or anything yet, we don’t even have a specific date when the 18A node is due to enter production. What we do know is that this is Intel’s most advanced bit of kit yet, and AMD will likely have to step it up to keep up with Intel. According to VideoCardz, Panther Lake (built on the 18A node) will feature up to 16 CPU cores and up to 12 Xe3 Graphics cores. But this architecture is primarily designed for mobile devices, such as laptops, and doesn’t specifically mention a desktop version.
According to some leaked Dell roadmaps, Intel OEM partners (such as Dell) plan to introduce products using this architecture as early as 2026, again, no solid date on that. Mobile processors hold an important position in the market, those who game on the go seem to be on the rise, and it represents an important part of the CPU market. If Intel can get this right, it’ll really help their 2026. Intel needs it right now with its 13 and 14th-generation CPUs cooking themselves slowly.
The Clearwater Forest CPUs are Intel’s next-generation Xeon server CPUs, set to replace the yet-to-release Sierra Forest, which is the first Xeon chip to be comprised entirely of E-cores. You can count on Intel to help keep those costs down. When Clearwater releases, it will feature Darkmont cores, which will be the successor to the Skymont-based Sierra architecture.
This comes as some good news for Intel in a time of need, but it’ll be interesting to see how the public reacts to Intel being so focused on the progression of new hardware, whilst it just watches the old stuff burn.
