Intel may be preparing ultra-low-power 6W chips using its 18A process

Intel may be preparing an even smaller and more power-efficient processor platform than its upcoming Wildcat Lake family. A new leak points to a chip reportedly called Moon Lake, which could strip away Wildcat Lake's performance cores in favor of an exclusively efficiency-core design. With a configurable power envelope starting at just 6W, it could eventually find a home in inexpensive laptops, tablets, and other compact devices.

The information comes from Intel leaker Jaykihn (@Jaykihn0), who has shared numerous processor specifications over the past couple of years. Alongside the alleged Moon Lake details, the leaker also outlined Wildcat Lake Refresh, which is reportedly moving to four P-cores and four LP E-cores. That's the same CPU core configuration found in Lunar Lake, a notable change from existing Wildcat Lake Core 300 processors, which offer a maximum of two P-cores.

Moon Lake takes the opposite approach. According to Jaykihn, it uses Darkmont LP E-cores, the same efficiency-core architecture found in Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake, but eliminates P-cores entirely. The processor is reportedly designed around a 6W power target, although manufacturers could configure it anywhere between 6W and 15W.

Interestingly, Moon Lake is said to use Intel's 18A manufacturing process rather than an older, less advanced node. It remains unclear whether these chips are entirely new designs or could involve silicon recovered from Wildcat Lake production.

Graphics capabilities are expected to remain modest. Moon Lake will likely retain a 64-bit memory bus and support up to two Xe3 graphics cores, although a single Xe3-core configuration seems possible. That would make it a spiritual successor to Intel's Alder Lake-N and Twin Lake processors, which also relied exclusively on efficiency cores, although those older platforms scaled up to eight CPU cores.

Wildcat Lake Refresh could occupy a more conventional entry-level laptop segment. VideoCardz reports that the refreshed processors will form part of Intel's Core 7 and Core 5 Series 4 families, although pricing remains unknown.

Moon Lake, meanwhile, could be particularly interesting for ultra-thin devices. A quad-core x86-64 processor capable of reaching multi-gigahertz frequencies, potentially delivering more than one TFLOP of compute performance, while operating within a 6W power envelope would be an impressive combination.

Both platforms are reportedly expected sometime next year, after Nova Lake but potentially before Razor Lake. Intel has yet to officially confirm Moon Lake, so its specifications and eventual product positioning should be treated as preliminary until further details emerge.

As always, for the latest news on Intel processors, low-power CPU architectures, upcoming Core and Wildcat Lake platforms, and developments across the gaming industry, be sure to follow our dedicated hardware coverage.