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Intel allegedly cancels another future desktop CPU architecture

Intel Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200 CPUs are expected to officially launch In October. (Image source: Intel, Unsplash, Pixabay, edited)
Intel Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200 CPUs are expected to officially launch In October. (Image source: Intel, Unsplash, Pixabay, edited)
According to a rumor that has just surfaced, Intel has reportedly canceled a desktop CPU architecture that was rumored to launch late next year. Assuming this to be true, Intel Arrow Lake CPUs will now be the only chips from Team Blue against AMD's offerings till 2026.

We are on the verge of a new Intel desktop architecture in Arrow Lake. Expected to release on October 24, the success of ARL-S CPUs is crucial for Intel, as the company is currently battling eroding consumer trust due to Raptor Lake instability and deep financial troubles. Team Blue, once the dominant force in the client CPU business, is having such a hard time that Qualcomm has allegedly approached the company for a takeover.

To make matters worse, rumors of Intel canceling future CPU architecture have also surfaced. For instance, we reported earlier this month that Intel’s CEO had abruptly pulled the plug on the fabled “Royal Core” project this year.

Sadly, it seems Intel has canceled another desktop CPU architecture.

Arrow Lake Refresh is reportedly canceled

According to panzerlied's now-edited comment on Chiphell forums, Intel has canceled the ARL-S Refresh and the upcoming ARL-S CPUs will have to contend with the current and future AMD Ryzen CPUs for the next two years. This means that Intel Core Ultra 200K Arrow Lake chips will be the only desktop solution from Team Blue tasked with going head-to-head with the latest Zen 5 and the upcoming Zen 5X3D chips.

Additionally, if AMD launches the Zen 6 processors in late 2025 or early 2026, ARL-S will also have to compete with those chips until Nova Lake is released.

Intel Arrow Lake Refresh specs

The Intel Arrow Lake-S Refresh CPUs were previously rumored to bring up to 40 cores with 8 Lion Cover P-cores and 32 Skymont E-cores. The performance increase offered by these 40 cores was reported to be 30-50% for multi-core workloads and largely similar for single-core workloads.

From these few details, it seemed like ARL-R was meant to hold the ground against Zen 6 until Intel was ready to launch Nova Lake in 2026.

Intel’s current CPU roadmap

Before the alleged cancelations, the Intel CPU roadmap for the coming few years looked something like the following:

  • Core Ultra 200 “Arrow Lake” CPUs in late 2024
  • Arrow Lake Refresh in H2 2025
  • Nova Lake (Royal Core 1.0) chips in H2 2026/2027
  • Beast Lake (Royal Core 1.1) due for 2027
  • Beast Lake Next (full implementation of Royal Core) for 2028

However, with the purported cancelations of Arrow Lake Refresh, Beast Lake, and Beast Lake Next, we only have the vanilla ARL-S in 2024 and Nova Lake scheduled for H2 2026/early 2027. If true, this might mean that Intel Nova Lake would be competing with Zen 7 in 2027.

Intel Arrow Lake Refresh cancelation rumor. (Image source: panzerlied on Chiphell via Wccftech)
Intel Arrow Lake Refresh cancelation rumor. (Image source: panzerlied on Chiphell via Wccftech)
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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2024 09 > Intel allegedly cancels another future desktop CPU architecture
Fawad Murtaza, 2024-09-23 (Update: 2024-09-23)