Intel confirmed their Panther Lake and Nova Lake chips will no longer feature built-in memory like the Lunar Lake chips. This was announced by CEO Pat Gelsinger when presenting the company's financial report for Q3 2024. The production of Lunar Lake costs a lot because it requires third-party RAM and depends on wafer production by TSMC.
Intel wanted to reduce the cost of producing their chips by using their own 18A fabrication and going back to chip designs with no built-in memory. It will be launched in H2 2025 with 70% of the chips to be manufactured by Intel itself without the need to use TSMC's skills.
The use of built-in memory on the chip contributes to a reduction in battery consumption of up to 40% on the Lunar Lake chip. This option to return to the use of external RAM will certainly have an impact on the performance of laptops with Intel chips next year.
At the same time Intel's product line especially involving the data center will be simplified with a lower number of SKUs. Intel may also end production of discrete GPU cards with a focus on on-chip GPUs only from now on. The future of the Intel Battlemage GPU predicted to launch later this year is now in question.
All of these announcements are to reduce expenses by Intel facing the challenging year 2024. The removal of the workforce and the cancellation of several factories have already been done.