Check out this beautiful die shot of Intel's new Core Ultra 9 285K on TSMC's 3nm process node

Intel's next-gen Core Ultra 9 285K processor is nearly here, but take a seat and check out these die shots of the 285K that shows Intel's first Tiled CPU for desktop PCs in all its nerdy, silicon glory.

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The upcoming Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake-S" desktop CPUs will be led by the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K, which ASUS China manager Tony Yu has now delidded, and taken some truly gorgeous die shots of. There are multiple tiles on the processor that we get to see, some of which are made on the TSMC N3B, N5P, and N6 process nodes.

All of these building blocks create the Arrow Lake CPU being put together in a tiled-like fashion, with 6 tiles in total that include:

• Compute Tile (TSMC N3B)
• Graphics Tile (TSMC N5P)
• SOC Tile (TSMC N6)
• I/O Tile (TSMC N6)
• 2 x Filer Tile (N/A)
• Base Tile (Intel 1227.1)

Inside, the main tile resides on the CPU as the Compute Tile that packs 8 Lion Cove P-Cores and a total of 16 Skymont E-Cores.

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Compared to previous-gen Raptor Lake and Alder Lake CPUs that saw P-Cores and E-Cores on two separate areas of the compute tile, Arrow Lake CPUs combine the P-Cores and E-Cores that pave the way for the Ring Bus interconnect fabric and improved thermal management, too.

Main features of the Intel Arrow Lake Compute Tile:

• Based on TSMC N3B (vs Raptor Lake Intel 10nm++)
• Up To 8 P-Cores (Lion Cove)
• Up To 16 E-Cores (Skymont)
• Ring Bus Interconnect

Main features of the Intel Arrow Lake SoC Tile:

• Based on TSMC N6
• DDR5 Memory Controller (5600 MT/s Native Speeds)
• UDIMM/CUDIMM/CAMMII Support
• Up To 13 TOPS NPU3
• Media Engine (H.264/H.265/AV1)
• PCIe 5.0 x16 For dGPU

Main features of the Intel Arrow Lake I/O Tile:

• Based on TSMC N6
• 1x PCIe 5.0 x4 (SSD)
• 1x PCIe 4.0 x4 (SSD)

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Tony even compared two Intel CPUs side-by-side comparing dies, with the N3B one on the left (TSMC 3nm FinFET) versus the image on the right on Intel 7 (Intel 10nm FinFET).