Intel is sampling 18A-based Panther Lake with customers — Intel Foundry's 18A node and CPUs are on track for 2H 2025 launch
One of the interesting things that Intel shared in its CES 2025 press release is the fact that the company is sending samples of its 'lead 18A product' — the codenamed Panther Lake processor for client computers — to its customers among PC makers. The company stressed that the CPUs will be mass-produced on the Intel 18A process technology in the second half of this year, which is good news for the company.
"Intel is only going to continue bolstering its AI PC product portfolio in 2025 and beyond as we sample our lead Intel 18A product to customers now ahead of volume production in the second half of 2025," a statement by Intel reads.
Intel's Panther Lake is an essential processor for Intel as it will be 70% manufactured in-house, which means significantly lower costs and substantially higher profit margins. Leaked specifications indicate that Panther Lake will feature between eight and 16 cores in various configurations, depending on positioning. The CPU is expected to be a notebook-first product to succeed both Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake laptop processors. Yet, what will succeed Arrow Lake-S CPUs for desktops remains to be seen.
One of the important aspects of Intel's Panther Lake is that it will be produced on the company's 18A process technology (1.8nm-class), a make-or-break production node. The 18A process is Intel's first (technically, second, but 20A has essentially been canceled) process technology, which uses RibbonFET gate-all-around transistors and has a backside power delivery option called PowerVia.
