A brand new Intel Lunar Lake CPU sample has leaked out which has revealed more info on the upcoming Core Ultra platform for thin & light notebooks.
Intel Lunar Lake Launches Later This Year & The First CPU Samples Are Already Leaking Out With 8 Cores & 8 Threads
The leak comes from XZiar at Zhihu who has reportedly obtained a screenshot of the task manager on an alleged Intel Lunar Lake CPU-powered notebook. According to the user, this sample is an "A1" stepping and if true, it looks like Intel's Lunar Lake might just be on time for its release later this year.
Diving into the details, the Intel Lunar Lake CPU is an early sample that is listed as "Genuine Intel (R) 0000 1.00 GHz" in the task manager. The chip has a base clock of 1.80 GHz and a boost clock of 2.80 GHz but that's only with a 33% utilization. Intel Lunar Lake CPUs are expected to be fabricated on Intel's 20A process node and will feature a major boost to clock speeds compared with existing Meteor Lake CPUs which saw a clock speed regression when moving from Intel 7 to 4.
Powering the Intel Lunar Lake CPUs will be two major core architectures, the Lion Cove P-Cores and the Skymont E-Cores. The CPU sample comes with 8 cores and 8 threads but while the core config is not known for sure, it might be 4 P-Cores and 4 E-Cores. The exclusion of SMT for the P-Cores is also something that we have previously seen listed for early Arrow Lake samples. As for the cache, the CPU is configured with 832 KB of L1, 14 MB of L2, and 12 MB of L3 cache. This is a very unique cache number and we can use these numbers to compare it with existing Meteor Lake and Raptor Lake CPUs.
As per Bionic_Squash, the Lion Cove P-Cores on the Lunar Lake CPUs incorporate 48 KB of L0D, 192 KB of L1D (alleged), 64 KB of L1i, 2.5 MB of L2, and 3 MB of L3 cache while the Skymont E-Cores will have 64 KB of L1i, 32 KB of L1D, 4 MB of L2 and no L3 cache for the Lunar Lake chips. The L3 cache will be present on the rest of the chips that feature the Skymont E-Cores. The SLC will be 8 MB. The following is a breakdown of the different cache counts:
Intel Lunar Lake Cache Hierarchy:
| Cache | Skymont E-Core | Crestmont E-Core | Gracemont E-Core | Lion Cove P-Core | Redwood Cove P-Core | Raptor Cove P-Core |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L0D | N/A | TBD | TBD | 48 KB | TBD | TBD |
| L1D | 32 KB | 32 KB | 64 KB | 192 KB? | 48 KB | 32 KB |
| L1i | 64 KB | 64 KB | 32 KB | 64 KB | 64 KB | 48 KB |
| L2 | 4.0 MB (Cluster) | 2.0 MB (Cluster) | 4.0 MB (Cluster) | 2.5 MB (Per-Core) | 2.0 MB (Per-Core) | 2.0 MB (Per-Core) |
| L3 | N/A (For Lunar Lake) | 3.0 MB (Cluster) | 3.0 MB (Cluster) | 3.0 MB (Per-Core) | 3.0 MB (Per-Core) | 3.0 MB (Per-Core) |
So rounding things up, the following is what this leak presents us:
- Intel Lunar Lake CPUs are already in the A1 stepping
- Sample With 8 Cores & 8 Threads (4+4)
- No SMT Support for Sample
- 1.8 GHz Base Clock + 2.8 GHz Boost Clock
- 832 KB of Total L1 Cache (Data + Instruction)
- 14 MB of L2 Cache (Across P/E Cores)
- 12 MB of L3 Cache (Across P/E Cores)
That's about it as far as we can tell from the leak but a previous reveal pointed out that the MX chips for thin and light notebooks will be offering up to 8-cores in 4P and 4E configurations with next-gen Battlemage "Xe2" iGPU in up to 8-EU flavors and TDPs ranging from 8W, 17W and up to 30W. The Battlemage iGPU itself has been shown to offer up to a 2x gain in graphics performance within recent leaks while Intel itself has touted a 3x gain in NPU performance with Lunar Lake CPUs so we are in for a major CPU launch later this year if everything goes according to Intel's plans.
Intel Mobility CPU Lineup:
| CPU Family | Panther Lake | Lunar Lake | Arrow Lake | Meteor Lake | Raptor Lake | Alder Lake |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process Node (CPU Tile) | Intel 18A | TSMC N3B | TSMC N3B | Intel 4 | Intel 7 | Intel 7 |
| Process Node (GPU Tile) | TSMC N3E / Intel 3 | TSMC N3B | TSMC 5nm | TSMC 5nm | Intel 7 | Intel 7 |
| CPU Architecture | Hybrid | Hybrid (Dual-Core) | Hybrid (Triple-Core) | Hybrid (Triple-Core) | Hybrid (Dual-Core) | Hybrid (Dual-Core) |
| P-Core Architecture | Cougar Cove | Lion Cove | Lion Cove | Redwood Cove | Raptor Cove | Golden Cove |
| E-Core Architecture | Darkmont | N/A | Skymont | Crestmont | Gracemont | Gracemont |
| LP E-Core Architecture (SOC) | Darkmont | Skymont | Crestmont | Crestmont | N/A | N/A |
| Top Configuration (Compute Tile) | 4+8 (H-Series) | 4+4 (MX Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 2+8 (U-Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 2+8 (U-Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 8+16 (HX-Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 8+8 (HX-Series) |
| Max Cores / Threads | 16/16 | 8/8 | 14/14 | 14/20 | 14/20 | 14/20 |
| AI NPU | NPU5 (50 TOPS) | NPU4 (48 TOPS) | NPU3.5 (13 TOPS) | NPU3 (11 TOPS) | NPU2 (7 TOPS) | NPU2 (7 TOPS) |
| Planned Lineup | Core Ultra 300 | Core Ultra 200V | Core Ultra 200 | Core Ultra 100 | 14th/13th Gen | 12th Gen |
| GPU Architecture | Xe3-LPG (Battlemage) | Xe2-LPG (Battlemage) | Xe-LPG+ (Alchemist) | Xe-LPG (Alchemist) | Iris Xe (Gen 12) | Iris Xe (Gen 12) |
| Xe Cores (Max) | 12 Xe3 Cores | 8 Xe2 Cores | 8 Xe Cores | 8 Xe Cores | 96 EUs (768 Cores) | 96 EUs (768 Cores) |
| Memory Support | LPDDR5X-9600 | LPDDR5X-8533 | DDR5-5600 LPDDR5-7500 LPDDR5X-8533 | DDR5-5600 LPDDR5-7400 LPDDR5X - 7400+ | DDR5-5200 LPDDR5-5200 LPDDR5-6400 | DDR5-4800 LPDDR5-5200 LPDDR5X-4267 |
| Memory Capacity (Max) | 128 GB | 32 GB | 128 GB | 96 GB | 64 GB | 64 GB |
| Thunderbolt Support | TB5 | TB5 | TB5 | TB4 | TB4 | TB4 |
| WiFi Capability | WiFi 7 | WiFi 7 | WiFi 7 | WiFi 6E | WiFi 6E | WiFi 6E |
| TDP | 17-45W | 17-30W | TBD | 7W-45W | 15-55W | 15-55W |
| Launch | 2H 2025 | 2H 2024 | 2H 2024 | 2H 2023 | 1H 2023 | 1H 2022 |
News Source: HXL (@9550pro)
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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