Rumor mill: The Lunar Lake MX platform is the following essential step in Intel’s try to show that x86 can maintain again the rising affect of Arm processors within the cell and low-power sectors. Environment friendly on-package reminiscence is a central a part of this plan, and stories recommend that Samsung may very well be the first and probably sole supplier.
DigiTimes stories that Intel will supply LPDDR5X reminiscence from Samsung for its upcoming Lunar Lake MX platform. The brand new technology of cell processors, anticipated to launch in 2024 or early 2025, kinds a part of Intel’s reply to Apple’s M sequence.
Lumar Lake methods will solely use on-package RAM, which means customers cannot swap out or improve the reminiscence. If the knowledge on Intel’s settlement with Samsung is correct, then the South Korean producer may gain advantage tremendously from the numerous Lunar Lake gadgets Intel will probably promote. Nonetheless, the report did not explicitly state that Samsung is the one provider of Lumar Lake reminiscence. Intel might additionally get the chips from Sk Hynix and Micron.
Samsung began mass-producing LDDR5X in 2021. About 1.3 instances sooner than LDDR5, the usual allows most switch speeds of 8.5 Gbps and might jam massive quantities of RAM into cell gadgets. Earlier leaks point out that Intel plans to solder the reminiscence subsequent to the CPU in Lunar Lake setups, much like Apple Silicon merchandise.
One attainable benefit for Lunar Lake is LDDR5X’s 16GB minimal, which many think about normal for intensive duties. In the meantime, Apple has obtained criticism for promoting some M3 methods with solely 8GB. The Cupertino big justified its determination by claiming that Dynamic Caching will give its merchandise important effectivity beneficial properties, likening 8GB in a MacBook Professional to 16GB in a Home windows PC.
Intel will probably have 4 Lunar Lake fashions starting from Core 5 to Core 7 with both 16 or 32GB of reminiscence and TDPs between 8W and 30W. The lower-tier variants can function on fanless gadgets.
The knowledge means that lately unveiled Meteor Lake-based handheld gaming PCs just like the MSI Claw might obtain Lunar Lake successors. Such gadgets would function built-in GPUs using Intel’s upcoming Xe2 Battlemage structure.
Apple’s M3, or probably its successor, will not be Lunar Lake’s solely Arm-based competitors. Qualcomm claims that its Snapdragon X Elite SoC outperforms M3, maybe offering Home windows methods with a transparent path to Arm beginning mid-2024.
