Intel Skymont Details Leak Online

Highlights

• New details about Intel Skymont cores for the new Lunar Lake CPUs have leaked following a meeting.
• Skymont cores boast double-digit IPC gains over Crestmont and feature 9-wide Decode Unit and 8-wide integer ALU.
• Lunar Lake CPUs will be entirely manufactured by TSMC, and they are expected to launch in new laptops this October.

New details about Intel Skymont cores for the company’s new Lunar Lake CPUs were leaked from a closed meeting with media and analysts. The leaks provide more information about the next-gen Intel CPU architecture, including a potential release window for the first products using Lunar Lake CPUs.

This past February, Intel Lunar Lake leaks revealed an 8 core and 8 thread configuration for the new MX platform, which will ship out on new low-power laptops and handheld gaming devices. The CPU’s four performance cores are based on the Lion Cove microarchitecture, while the other four are efficiency cores based on the Skymont microarchitecture. Moreover, the processors are expected to feature Intel’s next-gen Battlemage Xe2-LPG GPU cores. A subsequent leak in March indicated a 50% multithreaded performance uplift for Lunar Lake over Meteor Like, despite having four fewer cores than Meteor Lake’s 12-core CPUs.

As reported by Videocardz.com and Twitter user HXL (@9550pro), leaks detailing Intel Lunar Lake’s Skymont efficiency cores were spread all over Weibo before being deleted. The leaks were compiled before the Weibo posts were deleted, revealing that Intel Skymont cores will feature “double-digit” instructions per clock (IPC) over previous generation Crestmont cores. The exact IPC gains were not revealed, but this leak implies a notable leap in performance compared to the meager 4% uplift in IPC from Gracemont to Crestmont. The double-digit IPC improvement is possible due to the 9-wide Decode Unit and 8-wide integer ALU, which is double the number featured in Crestmont cores.

Intel Leaks Reveal Details About Lunar Lake’s Skymont Microarchitecture

• Skymont cores reportedly have a double-digit IPC gain over Crestmont
• 9-wide Decode Unit and 8-wide integer ALU
• Manufactured by TSMC
  • N3B node (Compute Tile)
  • N6 node (SoC Tile)
• Expected to launch in new laptops this October

The leak also indicates that Lunar Lake is manufactured entirely by TSMC, the company that manufactures and supplies chips for AMD and Nvidia CPUs. Lunar Lake’s Compute Tile will feature TSMC’s N3B node, while the SoC Tile will feature a N6 node, which doesn’t have low-power efficient cores. Lunar Lake is expected to release in new Intel Core Ultra 200 laptops this October, but Intel has not officially announced a release date for the new CPU series yet. Previous rumors and speculation suggest volume production for Lunar Lake will ramp up sometime in 2025.

Moreover, new Intel Arrow Lake CPUs will be released alongside Lunar Lake with the same microarchitecture. However, Arrow Lake will target mid-range and high-end hardware, including gaming laptops and desktop products, instead of low-powered laptops. Arrow Lake looks to be a compelling option for users needing a powerful laptop that’s capable of completing productivity tasks on the go. More details may come as soon as Computex 2024, which will be held from June 3 to 7 in Taipei.