Intel working on 'Zen 5 killer'
The project apparently aims to develop a new series of architectures, to ensure Intel's x86 products can win in efficiency battles over ARM and Apple
Intel is said to be working on a new project that will compete with AMD's Zen 5 architecture, known as 'Royal Core'.
A new video by YouTuber Moore's Law Is Dead (MLID), who has a good track record on Intel leaks, claims to detail as many as five generations past Intel's 12th gen Alder Lake series, which the chipmaker is set to launch later this year.
MLID said Jim Keller, a microprocessor engineer known for his work at AMD's K12 and Zen projects, was one of the people working on Royal Core.
Keller joined Intel as Senior Vice President in April 2018, but resigned in June 2020 and now serves as CTO at Tenstorrent.
MLID says Royal Core is the codename for the architectures Keller worked on, to move past the current Core series from Intel. The project aims to develop a new series of architectures to ensure Intel's x86 products can win in efficiency comparisons to ARM and Apple architecturess for the foreseeable future.
Royal Core was originally planned to roll out in 2024 with Lunar Lake (rumoured for Q4 2024), but now it could be Nova Lake that effectively gets the 'full' Royal Core treatment. Lunar Lake is said to be aimed at a launch in 2025.
In the video, MLID cites sources who said: "Once disaggregated architectures are achieved in Meteor Lake, Lunar or Nova Lake (unsure) brings in the new architectures that should be the biggest leap in Intel performance since the introduction of the Core series: up to a doubling of IPC over Golden Cove."
MLID also provided quotes from his sources, indicating impressive instructions per cycle (IPC) gains for each generation.
"Lunar Lake aims to bring at least 30 per cent IPC over Meteor Lake with Lion Cove, and Nova Lake extends this with Panther Cove."
MLID's claims to have details on Intel's plans for SMT4 (4-way hyperthreading), DDR5-7400 memory support and an Integrated Machine Learning Accelerator feature, which he says are "on the table for implementation by 2026."
AMD is expected to launch Zen 4 next year, in its Ryzen 7000 (Raphael) processors and Socket AM5 motherboards. It will likely take a few more years before we see the Zen 5 architecture.