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Credit: Intel
Intel’s next-generation desktop CPU family, codenamed Nova Lake, is officially slated for a 2026 launch. Renowned leaker Jaykihn has weighed in at X, alleging Nova Lake could scale up to 52 cores.
Before you get excited, be aware that these are preliminary silicon configurations that could be canceled later. As a reminder, we saw similar rumors of a 40-core (8P + 32E) Arrow Lake chip, which likely did exist but never saw the light of day. Nonetheless, the leaker alleges Nova Lake will employ the Coyote Cove and Arctic Wolf architectures for its P-cores and E-cores, respectively.
Shipping manifests from NBD suggest that Nova Lake test chips are currently in the hands of developers, which is expected since these CPUs are set to launch next year. Intel’s co-CEO, Michelle Holthaus, asserted that some parts of Nova Lake will be built at external foundries (TSMC, Samsung), though most will remain in-house.
Jaykihn has listed three Nova Lake configurations that Intel is reportedly considering at the moment: 52 cores (16P + 32E + 4LPE), 28 cores (8P + 16E + 4LPE), and 16 cores (4P + 8E + 4LPE). The initial claim portrays the 52-core SKU as a dual 8P+16E design with four LPE cores (likely on the SoC Tile).
Intel could adopt a dual-CCX-like design with a dedicated L3 cache for each 8P+16E pair, though a large, unified pool of L3 cache is also possible. The leaker suggests that the 52-core die is potentially designated for both desktops and laptops as an HX-grade SKU, but the claim isn’t strongly asserted since all of this data is preliminary.
The tipster claims that Nova Lake will adopt Coyote Cove P-cores and Arctic Wolf E-cores for its architecture. It is speculated that Coyote Cove is the second successor to Lion Cove (Arrow Lake/Lunar Lake), following Cougar Cove (Panther Lake). On the E-core side, Skymont is rumored to be superseded by Darkmont, followed by Arctic Wolf.
Adding to the mix, Jaykihn mentions a Nova Lake SKU with a 144MB L3 cache-equipped compute tile, suggesting its existence but not offering further details. Such exotic designs rarely see the light of day, so we highly recommend you take this leak with a grain of salt. Despite Nova Lake purportedly sticking with an off-die memory controller, rumors exist that Intel may have optimizations in place to minimize the latency penalty.
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