The story of Intel's first 18A product, "Panther Lake," remains shrouded in mystery, at least for a few more days. According to earlier reports, Intel was expected to start shipping the first PTL-U and PTL-H SKUs by the end of 2025, with additional SKUs to follow in 2026. However, that situation could be subject to change, according to Golden Pig Upgrade. The rumored October 9 launch date is reserved only for the microarchitecture deep dive, and the launch and final specifications of specific models will occur at CES 2026. Being Intel's first big bet with the 18A node, Panther Lake is a product of years of Intel's manufacturing innovation, which needs to demonstrate that the investment in advanced manufacturing was worthwhile. Reportedly, Intel started limited shipments of its 18A nodes to U.S. customers in Q3, with these wafers already in production and initial output of its own CPUs expected in Q4.

Given that Panther Lake is the first 18A node product, we could expect that to be a large part of those shipped wafers, most likely going to OEMs for testing before integration. As a reminder, the low-power PTL-U models are designed for a 15 W TDP and are expected to come in 6-core and 8-core versions. Some SKUs will feature four high-performance P-cores paired with four LPE-cores, while others will have only two LPE-cores complementing four P-cores. Both families will utilize Xe3-based integrated graphics, with entry models featuring four GPU cores. The more powerful PTL-H line will scale up to around 16 CPU cores, comprising four P-Cores, eight E-cores, and four LPE-cores. Some H-series parts might include up to 12 GPU Xe3 cores for integrated graphics, but the final configurations will be revealed when Intel officially launches the Panther Lake product family.