Intel is about to launch a new processor named "Wildcat Lake", which is designed as an entry-level product aiming to replace the existing Alder Lake-N series, including models such as i3-N305/N300, N200/N100/N97/N50. According to sources, Wildcat Lake is expected to be available in late 2025, and its main application areas include Chromebook laptops, budget laptops, mini PCs, NAS devices, and embedded systems, similar to the positioning of the previous Pentium/Celeron N series.

Remarkably, Wildcat Lake is expected to adopt Intel's latest 18A manufacturing process, which will undoubtedly bring significant performance improvements. In terms of core design, Wildcat Lake will also adopt a big.LITTLE architecture, specifically including up to 2 performance cores (P-cores) based on the Cougar Cove architecture and 4 energy-efficient cores (LPE ultra-small cores) based on the Darkmont architecture. Compared with the existing N series processors, Wildcat Lake is expected to achieve a qualitative leap in overall performance by introducing performance cores.

The core architecture of Wildcat Lake adopts a split cluster combination instead of the traditional ring bus design, which helps improve the processor's efficiency and performance. From the perspectives of manufacturing process and P-core architecture, Wildcat Lake has many similarities with Panther Lake. There are even rumors that the LPE cores will also return on Panther Lake. Therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that Wildcat Lake may be an entry-level streamlined version of Panther Lake, and its release time may be slightly later.

In terms of graphics processing, the integrated GPU of Wildcat Lake is expected to be upgraded to the latest Xe2 architecture, the same as Lunar Lake. Although the specific number of cores is still unknown, it can be foreseen that the Xe2 architecture will bring better graphics processing capabilities than the existing integrated GPUs. However, along with this upgrade comes a change in packaging. The packaging of Wildcat Lake has been changed from the original FCBGA1264 35 x 24 mm to FCBGA1516, and the size has slightly increased to 35 × 25 mm, which means it is not compatible with the old processors in terms of packaging.

The launch of Wildcat Lake also indicates Intel's continuous innovation in processor manufacturing process and architecture design. By introducing the latest manufacturing process and big.LITTLE architecture, Intel aims to provide users with more efficient and powerful processor solutions. For devices that require high-performance processor support, Wildcat Lake is undoubtedly an option worth looking forward to.