Intel Moon Lake CPUs To Power Entry-Level Laptops With Just Four LPE “Darkmont” Cores Based on 18A, & A TDP Starting at 6 Watts - Wccftech

Intel is preparing a new entry-level laptop CPU lineup called Moon Lake, which will feature just four LPE cores on the 18A process node. The company is planning to offer two new families for entry-level PCs; the first will be Wildcat Lake Refresh, and then the more entry-tier Moon Lake lineup.

Wildcat Lake Refresh

The Wildcat Lake Refresh lineup will feature updated core counts with 4 P-Cores and 4 LPE cores, based on the same architecture and process technologies. The base power of these chips will be 10-35W, which is a slight uptick on the higher end of the spectrum, and will get vPro designs.

Intel has already launched its Core Series 3 "Wildcat Lake" as a cheaper alternative to its premium Panther Lake "Core Ultra Series 3" CPUs. These chips pack up to 2 P-Cores, 4 LPE-Cores, and 2 Xe3 iGPU cores, with TDPs of 10-28W.

Moon Lake Specifications

Moon Lake CPUs will be designed around the same BGA 1516 package and utilize the 18A process technology. The main difference is that Moon Lake will entirely drop P-Cores and feature just four LPE cores based on the same Darkmont core architecture.

These chips will feature ultra-low TDPs of 6W at base and configurable TDPs of up to 15 Watts. No information is available on the iGPU, but they are likely to come in 1-2 Xe3 configurations. Moon Lake PCs will target the sub-$300/$400 price points with 8-16 GB memory configurations.

Market Strategy

The CPU is said to be a continuation of the chiplet "disaggregated" design which Intel has been following for several generations. Intel's diversification in the entry-level segment makes strategic sense as this segment represents a major portion of revenue streams for CPU makers, though recent memory shortages have affected the PC segment, driving shipments down.