Intel to launch next-gen Panther Lake in 2H 2025: drops on-package memory moving forward

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has said that the use of on-package memory with Lunar Lake was a "one-off for us" and that "you don't want to have volume memory going th rough the channel. It's not a good way to run the business".

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The comments from Gelsinger followed Intel's recent Q3 2024 earnings report, with the Intel CEO speaking with big bankers who were asking some great questions (and getting even better answers). We now know that Intel's next-gen Panther Lake CPU will be 70% manufactured in-house at Intel Foundry, with Panther Lake being the first client CPU on its new Intel 18A node.

Gelsinger confirmed that Panther Lake is gearing for release in 2H 2025, and will not feature on-package memory like the just-launched Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" CPUs have. Nova Lake will succeed Panther Lake, and it too will not feature on-package memory, something Intel will be doing moving forward.

David Zinsner asked Gelsinger: "Yes. And just to be clear, it's exclusive to Lunar Lake, but not Meteor Lake. And it's having a pretty meaningful impact, a significant impact on Lunar Lake's gross margins, and originally we were like a third of the volume in terms of our expectations next year on Lunar Lake when we recognized how important the AI PC market would be and how good this part was competitively. We pushed the volume significantly up. And so that has put some reasonable pressure on the gross margins for the total company".

• Read more: Intel launches Core Ultra 200V series 'Lunar Lake' to battle AMD + Qualcomm in AI PCs

Gelsinger said: "Yes. And maybe architecturally, the second half of that question, Lunar Lake was initially designed to be a niche product that we wanted to achieve highest performance and great battery life, capability, and then AI PC occurred. And with AI PC, it went from being a niche product to a pretty high-volume product. Now relatively speaking, we're not talking about 50 million, 100 million units, but a meaningful portion of our total mix from a relatively small piece of it as well. So as that shift occurred, obviously, this became a bigger margin implication both for Lunar Lake and for the company overall".

He continued: "But we were very pleased to have the option to scale Lunar Lake and higher volume because of the momentum energy around the AI PC category. That's at a volume product and a volume industry like the PC industry, you don't want to have volume memory going through that channel. It's not a good way to run the business. So it really is, for us, a one-off with Lunar Lake".

• Read more: Intel starts next-gen Xe3 GPU enablement for Linux: ready for Panther Lake CPUs
• Read more: Intel's next-gen Panther Lake-H CPU info leaked: up to 18 CPU cores, 12 GPU cores
• Read more: Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake CPUs expected to use on-package memory

Gelsinger added: "That will not be the case with Panther Lake, Nova Lake and its successors as well. We'll build it in a more traditional way with memory off package in the CPU, GPU, NPU and I/O capabilities in the package. But volume memory will be off package in the roadmap going forward. And we won't have this kind of impact that we're dealing with for '25 in the margin structure specifically around Lunar Lake. But again it's a great product. And we're happy that we have it in the portfolio and we've scaled it commensurate with the enthusiasm of the AI PC category".

• Read more: Intel's next-gen consumer CPU will be Nova Lake-S, Panther Lake mobile only
• Read more: Intel Core Ultra 300 series 'Panther Lake' powered on, on track for 2025
• Read more: Intel Panther Lake-H, Panther Lake-U CPUs: up to 16 cores, Xe3 'Celestial' GPU
• Read more: Intel CEO: next-gen Panther Lake CPUs have 2x AI performance over Arrow Lake