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Intel says it will launch new core with Nova Lake on desktop first, not in data center — VP Robert Hallock hopes enthusiasts ‘do the math’ compared to AMD
A (very diplomatic) shot across the bow at Robert Hallock’s former employer.
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Intel will launch its new core with Nova Lake on desktop first, not in the data center. Tom’s Hardware Premium recently sat down with Intel VP and general manager of the enthusiast channel business Robert Hallock and asked about his reaction to AMD launching Zen 6 first in the data center with new EPYC Venice CPUs — breaking with over a decade of AMD leading with a client release for its new architectures. Hallock opened up about Intel’s enthusiast roadmap and said the company is “very serious” about executing that roadmap.
“I think it's a natural reaction for them. Makes a lot of sense. What I would say is, as we think about our own roadmap, I have a new core. It's coming to desktop first. I mean, I hope enthusiasts do the math about that one, and that's all I'm going to say,” said Hallock when we asked for his reaction to the Venice launch.
AMD has a unified processor architecture across client and enterprise, which, combined with chiplets, allows AMD to easily scale up or down new architectures to fit a wide range of applications. The core architecture and chiplets at work in the data center are largely identical to the ones in a consumer processor; minus some obvious cutting around memory channels, PCIe lanes, etc.
Intel’s architecture sharing isn’t as clean, with various codenames thrown around for each core with each new generation of products, regardless of whether those products are from Xeon or not. However, Intel’s core architectures share a lot of DNA. Golden Cove was launched first with Sapphire Rapids but was tweaked for Raptor Lake with Raptor Cove; Redwood Cove launched in Meteor Lake first before working its way into Granite Rapids. The rumored “Panther Cove” core architecture for upcoming Diamond Rapids CPUs is likely a refresh of the Cougar Cove cores in Panther Lake. With Nova Lake, the new core (rumored to be called Coyote Cove) will launch on desktop first, with whatever variation (or perhaps an entirely new core) working its way into Xeon eventually.
The sudden surge in demand for CPUs in new agentic AI data centers has upended the traditional release cadence of AMD and Nvidia. Nvidia has shifted great focus toward its new Vera CPU, while AMD moved forward with Venice ahead of Olympus Ridge; the codename for consumer CPUs with the Zen 6 microarchitecture. Intel’s roadmap, at least among the enthusiast desktop business, remains steadfast, Hallock suggested.
“I have all the new CPUs all the way out to 2030. I have [a] back to back to back to back cadence of product for gamers, for desktop, built for that purpose,” Hallock said. “Obviously I can’t go into what any of that is, but I am accelerating for the gaming market… we’re moving faster than we ever have in product, in release cadence.”
It’s worth reiterating that Hallock is referring to Intel’s roadmap here. He does not have processors in hand reaching out to 2030.
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