On the TSMC N2 Node, Intel “Nova Lake-S” Tapes Out
The “Nova Lake-S” core product of Intel’s next-generation client CPU is said to have come out of TSMC’s Taiwanese factories. According to our earlier rumor mill speculation, Intel would use its own proprietary 18A node with assistance from TSMC’s high-volume 2 nm fabrication. Since Intel has taped out a computation tile on TSMC’s N2 node, Nova Lake-S is probably going to use a combination of 18A and TSMC N2 for its compute tiles, according to SemiAccurate. This decision may have been made because Intel is preparing a backup plan in case its 18A node fails or because it expects demand to be so high that its internal production capacity cannot meet it. In any case, customers may anticipate timely delivery of the goods in H2 2026, although there might be some intriguing solutions hidden beneath the surface.
Regarding the precise timing, it will take months from the time of a tapeout to the finished product. In Intel’s labs, the taped-out silicon tile is currently being powered on and tested using a variety of test cases that stress the silicon for diverse use cases and verify that it operates correctly. Power on usually takes a few weeks to a month to complete, and only a few months after that, final high-volume manufacture will start. Nova Lake-S is most likely to target Q3 of 2026 because it will take an additional two to three months to manufacture and distribute the product after that. Recall that the CPU will have 52 cores (16 P, 32 E, and 4 LPE), an 8,800 MT/s memory controller, Xe3 “Celestial” for graphics rendering, and Xe4 “Druid” for media and display functions. Because of its heterogeneous complexity, the CPU is both an intriguing product and a challenging target to manufacture.
