Intel has confirmed that its Nova Lake processors will use the Intel 18A-P node, with the company saying the client product is running ahead of its planned timeline. At CES in January, Intel plans to share additional details about the chips. The confirmation comes after months of speculation that had moved between Intel 18A and TSMC's N2P for the design.
Current speculation holds that Nova Lake will pair 18A-P for the SoC tile with TSMC's N2P for the compute tile, though the source article notes it would be unusual for Intel to reserve its most advanced node for an SoC tile. Either way, Intel's statement indicates Nova Lake will use 18A-P in some capacity. The company said in June that 18A-P had entered risk production, and at Hot Chips in August it disclosed that its next-generation Xeon 7 Diamond Rapids will be the first server products to use the enhanced node.
According to Intel, 18A-P delivers a 9% speed improvement at the same power, or an 18% reduction in power at the same speed, compared with 18A. Intel has described 18A-P as a drop-in replacement for 18A, meaning designs built for 18A can use the enhanced node without additional engineering work. Intel 18A is currently used in Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake products.
Intel said demand for Wildcat Lake, which appears in devices such as the Framework Laptop 12, is exceeding its supply. The company also said 18A products now account for a third of client CPU revenue, up from less than 5% in the first quarter. Intel's OEM partners, meanwhile, are managing inventory tightly to match softer sell-through, according to the company.
Intel's David Zinsner said the client business is expected to decline by more than 20% in the next quarter. He said Intel expects the 2026 PC unit total addressable market to fall approximately 12%, with second-half units down more than 20%, and he does not anticipate a sustained recovery until memory availability improves and pricing normalizes. For 2027, Intel is planning for a PC unit TAM decline of roughly 10%.
Despite that outlook, Zinsner said Intel's longer-term view remains positive, describing the company as positioned to gain market share and the PC as heading toward a renaissance despite the memory shortage. He also confirmed that Intel is taking some client capacity offline to build more data center products. Zinsner said the 18A wafers being taken offline in Oregon, which were generally intended for Panther Lake, will free up capacity to produce more data center wafers.
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