The laptop market is crucial for Intel, especially during the current challenging situation, where the company has laid off more than 15,000 employees and has stopped some major investments in the last few months.
The Core Ultra 200V (Series 2) family processors, code-named “Lunar Lake,” are Intel’s biggest bet in a highly competitive segment. These processors are designed to work seamlessly with Windows 11 using Copilot+, which indicates that they contain a fairly powerful Neural Processing Unit (NPU), at the very least.
In order to work effectively with Copilot+, it’s crucial to have an NPU that can handle the necessary circuit logic for executing artificial intelligence algorithms efficiently. However, not just any NPU will suffice. To be compatible with Copilot+, this logic must have a computational capacity of at least 40 TOPS (teraoperations per second). Intel claims that the NPU in its processors with Lunar Lake microarchitecture delivers 48 TOPS, and when combined with the capacity of the integrated GPU and CPU, the performance reaches 120 TOPS.
A Close Look at the Intel Core Ultra 200V (Series 2) SoC
Additionally, Intel claims that the Lunar Lake processors are up to 40% more energy efficient compared to their predecessors. This improved performance is attributed to both the microarchitecture and the manufacturing technology utilized by TSMC. Similar to the Meteor Lake chips, the Lunar Lake processors feature a disaggregated microarchitecture, which involves distributing the logic into different functional blocks called tiles connected by high-performance links.
The NPU of Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) processors delivers 48 TOPS, which is enough for Copilot+.
However, these functional blocks are part of two distinct physical structures that can be fabricated using different integration technologies if needed. The first structure, known as NOC (Network-On-Chip), includes two tiles (Compute Tile and Graphics Tile), the NPU, the memory controller, and one of the two power management modules.
The second physical block, known as IO (Input-Output), incorporates Wi-Fi and Bluetooth controllers, PCI Express link management logic, USB controllers, and sound reproduction logic, among other functional blocks. This disaggregated architecture, where the CPU is organized into various functional blocks with physical entities, aims to enhance the scalability and energy efficiency of the processor.
It’s remarkable that Intel has chosen TSMC to manufacture both the NOC and the IO functional block. The NOC, which includes the Compute Tile, the Graphics Tile, and the NPU, comes from the N3B node (3 nm first generation), while the IO block is made at the N6 node (6 nm). In this case, Intel is responsible for packaging the SoC using its Foveros technology, which functions as an alternative to TSMC’s COWOS and Samsung’s X-Cube advanced packaging.
These processors combine four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, but none of them implement Hyper-Threading technology.
Notably, these processors feature a combination of four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, but none of them implement Hyper-Threading technology. This means that each core can only process a single thread at a time, matching the number of cores in the Compute Tile.
Intel has confirmed that the microarchitectures of the high-efficiency (“Skymont”) and high-performance (“Lion Cove”) cores are different from those of the Meteor Lake SoCs, resulting in significantly higher performance per watt for the Lunar Lake SoCs compared to their predecessors.
Additionally, the processors in the Lunar Lake series have an interesting feature: The main memory is integrated into the SoC packaging. It’s spread across two LPDDR5X-8500 memory stacks (either 16 GB or 32 GB). This design helps reduce latency and consumption of the main memory subsystem. However, one significant downside is that users won’t be able to expand the main memory of a Lunar Lake SoC laptop.
The image below is particularly interesting because it showcases Intel’s significant advancement. The company claims that the high-efficiency cores of the Lunar Lake processors offer up to 80% better performance per watt compared to the Meteor Lake cores. If this holds true, it represents a substantial improvement. We’ll have the opportunity to verify this claim first-hand when we test one of the first laptops featuring this SoC. In addition, Intel asserts that the high-performance cores’ productivity is up to 50% higher than that of its predecessors.
In terms of connectivity, the Lunar Lake SoCs are well-equipped. As you can see in the image below, Intel has included the necessary logic for these chips to utilize Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, Thunderbolt 4, and PCI Express Gen 4.0 and 5.0 technologies. Not bad. Additionally, it offers Intel Unison technology, which lets you connect your smartphone or tablet to your laptop for intuitive data exchange between the devices.
This feature supports both Android and iOS devices and can be used for tasks like quickly transferring photos from a mobile device to a computer or sending messages from a messaging app using the keyboard of the PC.
These Chips Promise to Offer the Best Battery Life in Windows 11
The next image outlines several impressive features of Intel’s new processors. First, they include an additional 8 MB cache sub-level, which the company claims significantly enhances the execution of the most demanding threads with the main memory.
Furthermore, integrating this into the SoC packaging saves up to 40% of power. Lastly, the combination of improvements in the Lunar Lake microarchitecture and TSMC’s N3B and N6 integration technologies allows the SoC to consume up to 40% less power than a comparable Meteor Lake chip, according to Intel.
In this post, we’ve covered most of the features of the Intel Core Ultra 200V processors, but there’s one last noteworthy feature: the Xe2 GPU integrated into the SoC. According to Intel, this new graphics logic is more powerful and efficient than the previous Xe GPU revision. It’s also capable of handling moderately demanding games and boasts a maximum performance of 67 TOPS, with dedicated units specifically for ray tracing.
Intel has stated that the Xe2 GPU in Lunar Lake is 1.5 times faster than the graphics in Meteor Lake. It looks good, while the combined 120 TOPS from the NPU, CPU, and GPU looks even more promising. However, it’ll face tough competition in both the x86-64 domain, where AMD is strong, and the ARM domain, where Qualcomm and Apple are excelling. The first laptops with an Intel Core Ultra 200V SoC will be available on Sept. 24. Major manufacturers such as Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG, MSI, and Samsung have all chosen to adopt this new Intel platform.
Image | Intel
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