Intel

Intel Royal Core Project to improve x86 architecture efficency

Please note that this post is tagged as a rumor .

Intel Royal Core Project rumored to improve X86 architecture to better compete with Apple products

Moore’s Law is Dead has a video covering a wide spectrum of Intel’s future consumer and data center products.

According to the YouTuber, who has a very good track record on Intel leaks, the manufacturer has ambitious plans for its future. While we still await Intel’s 12th Gen Core “Alder Lake” series to launch later this year, we already know about as many as five generations past Alder Lake. After years of market stagnation and Intel reusing Skylake cores, such a roadmap certainly does look impressive.

It will probably take years for some of those leaks to see confirmation, with some projects being abandoned and others shifted or renamed. Yet, it is interesting to see how will the roadmap known in 2021 change once we get to pass the LGA1700 socket architecture

Intel is allegedly preparing a new type of Core series which are to improve the efficiency of the X86 architecture. A lackluster efficiency compared to ARM architecture was the main reason why Apple decided to abandon Intel products in favor of their own in-house SoC design. This new type of Core is internally referred to Royal Core Project, as revealed by MLID. As he notes, this project was originally to launch with Lunar Lake, but at this moment it is expected with Nova Lake, which is 6 generations away from Rocket Lake. One of the people working on this project was allegedly Jim Keller himself, who left Intel last year.

Furthermore, MLID provides quotes from his sources with impressive IPC gains for each generation but also revealing Intel’s plans for SMT4 (4-way hyperthreading) and DDR5-7400 memory support. One of the quotes appears to confirm the previous rumor of Lion Cove and Panther Cove microarchitecture codenames for Lunar and Nova Lake.

Intel Xeon in 2023+, Source: Moore’s Law is Dead

Intel Core Series CPU Roadmap (Rumored)
VideoCardzAlder LakeRaptor LakeMeteor LakeArrow LakeLunar LakeNova Lake
Intel Core Series12th Gen Core13th Gen Core (?)14th Gen Core (?)15th Gen Core (?)16th Gen Core (?)17th Gen Core (?)
Launch DateQ4 2021Q4 2022Q2 2023Q4 2023Q4 20242025
Fabrication NodeIntel 7Intel 7Intel 4 TBC TBC TBC
Big Core µArchGolden CoveRaptor CoveRedwood CoveLion CoveLion CovePanther Cove
Small Core µArchGracemontGracemontCrestmontSkymontSkymontDarkmont
Graphics µArchGen12.2Gen12.2Gen 12.7 TBC Gen 13 TBC
Max Core Count16 (8C+8c)24 (8C+16c) TBC 40 (8C+32c) TBC TBC
SocketLGA1700LGA1700 TBC TBC TBC TBC
Memory SupportDDR4/DDR5DDR5DDR5 TBC TBC TBC
PCIe GenPCIe 5.0PCIe 5.0PCIe 5.0 TBC TBC TBC

Future Xeon: Emeralds and Diamond Rapids

The YouTuber briefly touched on Granite Rapids , which is expected to allow Intel to aggressively compete with AMD in the server market. Those series of Xeon Scalable are to use Redwood Cove microarchitecture, same as Emeralds Rapids, but the core count is said to increase past 64 cores. No further details were provided.

Diamond Rapids is also mentioned, this successor to Granite Rapids is not expected until 2025. No details on this architecture are available either, but it is good to guess that it will use a new platform and new type of microarchitecture. Diamon Rapids should also use Intel 4 process technology, which its successor Granite Rapids is now officially confirmed to use.

Intel Xeon in 2023+, Source: Moore’s Law is Dead

INTEL Xeon Scalable (Rumored)
VideoCardz Cooper Lake Ice Lake Sapphire Rapids Emeralds Rapids Granite RapidsDiamond Rapids
Series2nd Gen Xeon3rd Gen Xeon4th Gen Xeon5th Gen Xeon6th Gen Xeon7th Gen Xeon
Release Year202020212022202320242025
PlatformPurleyWhitleyEagle StreamEagle Stream TBC TBC
Core µArchSkylakeSunny CoveGolden CoveRedwood CoveRedwood Cove TBC
Fabrication NodeIntel 14nmIntel 10nmIntel 7Intel 7Intel 4 TBC
Max Cores2840566464+ TBC
Max TDP250W270W350W350W TBC TBC
Memory Support6x DDR4-32008x DDR4-32008x DDR5-48008x DDR5-5600 TBC TBC
HBM Supportnonoup to 64GB HBM2e TBC TBC TBC
PCI ExpressPCIe 3.0, 40 lanesPCIe 4.0, 64 lanesPCIe 5/4, 80 lanesPCIe 5.0, 80 lanes TBC TBC

Source:

[Moore's Law Is Dead] Intel Lunar Lake & Emerald Rapids Leak: Jim Keller’s Royal Core designed to Kill Zen 5 (10,287 views)