4.8 GHz, 52 Cores, Intel “Nova Lake-S” Engineering Sample
The forthcoming “Nova Lake-S” from Intel unveils a brand-new microarchitecture along with internal improvements. The presence of the most recent shipping manifests, however, suggests that Intel is making sure its partners receive early samples so they can optimize the software and firmware as needed. Furthermore, it now looks like the 52-core top SKU will be shipped with speeds that might go higher than 5.0 GHz. Intel is already sending validation parts to OEMs and cooling providers so they can begin fine-tuning systems far in advance of qualification samples and mass production, as an early engineering sample verifies the appearance of test hardware in partner shipments. The 52-core component has a tiled design that combines one SoC tile with two computing tiles. Eight Coyote Cove-based P-Cores and sixteen Arctic Wolf-based E-Cores are housed in each compute tile, while four low-power Arctic Wolf LPE-cores are contributed by the SoC tile. For the highest SKU, Nova Lake-S has a configuration of 16 P-Core, 32 E-Core, and 4 LPE-Core, for a total of 52 cores; single-tile models have a 28-core alternative.
Additionally, Intel will provide big-cache bLLC versions for workloads that gain from having bigger on-die caches. Even though some suppliers require offset plates or other adjustments for the best contact, Nova Lake-S will use the LGA-1954 socket on the platform side, which has a 45×37.5 mm footprint and matches LGA-1851 dimensions. This should maintain broad cooler compatibility. Similar to Arrow Lake, the P-cores will not come with SMT, and Intel’s cache-first bLLC technique appears to be designed to tackle AMD’s stacked 3D V-Cache plan. The 4.8 GHz number currently originates from an engineering sample and Pre-QS shipments; as QS samples become available and Intel approaches an official launch, clock rates should be adjusted upward. Increased clock speeds above 5.0 GHz are to be expected, given Intel’s desire to regain a sizable portion of the desktop market.
