Detailed imaging of Intel's Panther Lake compute tile has revealed the physical layout of its next-generation Cougar Cove performance cores and Darkmont efficiency cores manufactured using the company's 18A process technology. Analysis from Chips and Cheese indicates each Cougar Cove core measures approximately 4.49 square millimeters while individual Darkmont cores occupy roughly 0.95 square millimeters, representing a 13 percent reduction compared to their Skymont predecessors.
The compute tile incorporates two Cougar Cove cores alongside three clusters of four Darkmont cores each, with performance cores allocated 3 megabytes of L2 cache and efficiency core clusters receiving 4 megabytes. Intel plans to demonstrate Panther Lake processors from its Core Ultra Series 3 lineup at CES 2026, combining the 18A compute tile with graphics components built on either Intel 3 or TSMC N3E nodes.
The compute tile incorporates two Cougar Cove cores alongside three clusters of four Darkmont cores each, with performance cores allocated 3 megabytes of L2 cache and efficiency core clusters receiving 4 megabytes. Intel plans to demonstrate Panther Lake processors from its Core Ultra Series 3 lineup at CES 2026, combining the 18A compute tile with graphics components built on either Intel 3 or TSMC N3E nodes.
