Intel will equip Lunar Lake with 64 EUs
Following Raptor Lake, Intel is set to sequentially bring forth Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, and Lunar Lake. Among these, Lunar Lake will feature a brand-new CPU architecture and foundational design, primarily aimed at ultra-low power performance optimization, focusing on per-watt performance improvements for mobile devices. Intel plans to tape out in 2024, preparing for production.
Recently, it has been revealed by Twitter user @SquashBionic that Lunar Lake’s integrated graphics will consist of 64 EU units, deploying the next-generation Battlemage’s Xe2-LPG architecture. As a CPU designed for ultra-thin and light systems, Lunar Lake’s initial design targets the 15W low-power mobile processor niche market, hence the graphics scale is evidently lower than Meteor Lake’s 128 EU units.
According to previous speculations, Intel will bifurcate Battlemage into two architectures – Xe2-LPG for integrated graphics and Xe2-HPG for discrete graphics. This could streamline driver development, reduce costs, and enhance compatibility. The compute modules of Lunar Lake are expected to adopt a process more advanced than Intel 20A, while outsourcing the production of other modules to external foundries, with Foveros packaging at 25um pitch. Rumors suggest that the GPU modules for Lunar Lake might be manufactured by TSMC using a 3nm process.
Furthermore, it is rumored that Lunar Lake’s P-Core will adopt the Lion Cove+ architecture, while the E-Core will employ the Skymont architecture. In the instruction set reference guide published by Intel last month, Lunar Lake was mentioned, indicating the new CPU will support a range of instructions, including AVX-VNNI-INT16, SHA512, SM3, and SM4. AVX-VNNI enhances the performance of neural network inference workloads by offering specialized features for 8-bit and 16-bit integer operations, while SHA512, SM3, and SM4 can improve security and encryption capabilities.