Intel has Lunar Lake CPU chiplet made by TSMC and eliminates hyperthreading

Intel shared more details about its upcoming Lunar Lake CPUs at Computex 2024 in Taiwan. The chipmaker confirms previous rumors that the chips do not support hyperthreading. The compute tile with P-cores is also made by TSMC.

Gelsinger explains during his keynote at Computex that the Lunar Lake architecture removes hyperthreading from the powerful Performance cores. This technique, which Intel first used in 2002 in a Pentium 4 CPU, allows a processor core to perform two tasks simultaneously. The chipmaker says it does this with an eye to economy.

Intel says that hyperthreading delivers an average of 30 percent performance gain for 20 percent extra power consumption. However, the company says that the main function of hyperthreading is already fulfilled by the new and more efficient E-cores, which were introduced in the 2021 Alder Lake architecture. Lunar Lake, as a laptop chip, is mainly focused on efficiency. According to the manufacturer, a P-core without hyperthreading can function fifteen percent more efficiently and take up ten percent less chip surface than one with HT. This does not mean that hyperthreading will be permanently removed from all Intel's future CPUs.

The Intel CEO also confirmed during his Computex keynote that the Compute tile for Lunar Lake will be created on TSMC's N3B node. That 'tile', the term Intel uses for chiplets, contains the P-cores of the processor. It is the first time that the manufacturer has these cores produced by an external foundry, where previously it always had these cores made in its own factories. The move fits within Intel's IDM 2.0 strategy, with which the company already announced that it would outsource part of its internal production to other companies. Intel has previously turned to TSMC for the production of its Arc GPUs, but never before for its processor cores.

In addition to the lack of hyperthreading, Intel is making several other improvements. The new IGPU offers a sneak peek at the next generation of Arc video cards and the NPU is also considerably faster. Tweakers published an extensive background story on Tuesday, which discusses the upcoming and significantly changed processor architecture.