According to market sources, Intel’s next-generation high-end mobile processors, Nova Lake-HX and Panther Lake-HX, will utilize the same BGA2540 package. This will provide a smooth platform transition path for laptop manufacturers.
Nova Lake-HX is Intel’s processor series designed for high-performance laptops. The BGA2540 package size represents an increase of approximately 20%-29% compared to its predecessors, the BGA2114 of Arrow Lake-HX and the BGA1964 of Raptor Lake-HX. The upcoming Panther Lake-HX will also use this package specification, allowing manufacturers to reuse existing motherboard designs and only adapt the firmware and cooling solutions for the new processors to complete the transition. This strategy reduces production costs and development cycles, facilitating rapid deployment of new products to the market. Test data indicates that the BGA2540 package supports more complex electrical connections and is equipped with dedicated voltage regulator testing tools, ensuring stable power delivery under high loads.
Advanced Interfaces and Power Delivery #
In addition to the package upgrade, Nova Lake-HX showcases cutting-edge technology in its interface support. The test tool list reveals that this processor supports USB4 and Thunderbolt interfaces, which are high-speed connections that meet the demands of modern laptops for data transfer and peripheral connectivity. Furthermore, Nova Lake-HX will support up to 48 PCIe 5.0 lanes, with some dedicated to GPUs and SSDs, significantly boosting graphics processing and storage performance.
Notably, 48V power supply components, labeled “48V EPP PD AIC,” have appeared in test prototypes. Compared to the typical 19V-20V input used in laptops, the 48V design is better suited for high-performance compact systems, such as Intel NUC Extreme, all-in-one desktops, or edge computing devices. In these scenarios, 48V power delivery can improve power conversion efficiency and reduce internal wiring complexity, thereby supporting higher-performance CPUs and GPUs. This suggests that Nova Lake-HX is not limited to the traditional laptop market but could also be used in small workstations or embedded systems, further expanding its application scope.
Performance Reference from Desktop Counterparts #
Meanwhile, the specifications of Intel’s desktop Nova Lake-S processor provide a performance reference for Nova Lake-HX. Nova Lake-S uses an LGA1954 socket and supports up to 52 cores, including 16 Coyote Cove performance cores and 36 Arctic Wolf efficiency cores, with a total cache of up to 144MB. This processor supports DDR5-8000 memory and 32 PCIe 5.0 lanes, 24 of which are directly provided by the CPU (16 for GPU, 8 for SSD), with the chipset providing an additional 8 PCIe 5.0 and 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes. This configuration makes it excel in gaming, workstation tasks, and multi-threaded applications. As a mobile derivative, Nova Lake-HX will have a slightly lower core count than the desktop version but will still exceed the 24-core configuration of the previous Arrow Lake-HX. In addition, the core architecture will also be based on Coyote Cove and Arctic Wolf.
Manufacturing Process and Release Timeline #
In terms of manufacturing process, the Nova Lake series is expected to adopt Intel 14A process, which offers a 20% increase in transistor density and 15% improvement in power efficiency compared to the 18A process. This process introduces High NA EUV lithography technology, helping to integrate more cores and functional units within a smaller chip area. However, due to some technical challenges with the new process, Intel may also evaluate TSMC’s foundry options to ensure mass production stability. The launch of Nova Lake-HX is anticipated between Q4 2026 and Q1 2027, aligning closely with the release of Panther Lake-H, forming a complementary lineup of high-performance mobile processors.
Panther Lake-H: A Companion Product #
Panther Lake-H, as a contemporary product to Nova Lake-HX, is expected to debut earlier in H2 2025. Its highest configuration includes 16 cores (4 performance cores, 8 efficiency cores, 4 low-power cores), paired with 12 Xe3 GPU cores, achieving a total AI computing power of 180 TOPS (CPU contributing 10 TOPS, GPU 50 TOPS, NPU 120 TOPS). For memory support, Panther Lake-H is compatible with LPDDR5X-8533 and DDR5-7200, with some models supporting LPCAMM2 modules, further enhancing memory bandwidth and flexibility. Additionally, this processor integrates the NPU5 neural processing unit, providing 18-50 TOPS of AI computing power, and supports Thunderbolt 4 and 5.0 interfaces.
Conclusion and Outlook #
The introduction of Nova Lake-HX and Panther Lake-H marks Intel’s continued iteration in the mobile high-performance computing domain. The unified BGA2540 package design reduces adaptation complexity for manufacturers, while support for advanced interfaces like PCIe 5.0, USB4, and Thunderbolt ensures the processors’ leading position in data transfer and expandability. The application of 48V power delivery further broadens their market potential, extending from traditional laptops to compact high-performance systems. Compared to rival AMD’s Zen 6 architecture, the Nova Lake series, with its high core count and advanced manufacturing process, demonstrates strong competitiveness in gaming, productivity, and AI tasks.
In the future, Intel will need to address technical bottlenecks in mass production of the new process and optimize thread scheduling efficiency for multi-core architectures to fully unleash the potential of the 52-core design. The final specifications and performance of Nova Lake-HX are still awaiting official confirmation, but its forward-looking design has already set a new benchmark for high-performance mobile computing. Intel is expected to further solidify its technological leadership in the high-end laptop and compact system markets through the Nova Lake and Panther Lake series in 2026.