Intel seems to be preparing to launch its own “Halo” product line within the Arrow Lake family to compete with AMD Strix Halo and Apple products.
Intel may aggressively deploy the Halo Arrow Lake processor line, targeting high-end workstations with larger integrated GPUs and embedded cache.
In a shipping document at NBD.LTD, we have caught our first glimpse of an early test sample of the Intel Arrow Lake Halo CPU, identified as a mobile workstation platform for enthusiasts. It appears this chip has been tested on “CEDARLHX5SO1DPC1”, a Reference Validation Platform (RVP) that will be used for internal chip testing before release. The CPU was shipped recently but seems to have been manufactured around week 34 of 2023, meaning it is nearly a year old.
Currently, Intel plans to launch at least four Arrow Lake lines, including Arrow Lake-S for desktops and Arrow Lake-HX/H/U for laptops. However, rumors regarding the Arrow Lake Halo line have surfaced since 2022 when the chip was mentioned by AdoredTV, and at that time, it was referred to as Arrow Lake-P (Halo).
We saw a slide allegedly from Intel at that time, listing the Halo SKU as ARL-P 6C+8A+GT3 “Halo”. This chip was reportedly set to enter production in week 33 of 2023, coinciding with the production timing in the shipping manifest. These chips are designed to target Apple’s high-end 14-inch models and are expected to introduce the Lion Cove P-Core and Skymont E-Core architectures on TSMC’s N3 process. The chip will also feature a larger GT3 iGPU with ADM cache, serving as L4 for the iGPU. There will be a total of five tiles, including CPU, SOC, IOE, GPU GT3, and ADM.
The chip was planned before anyone knew about AMD’s Strix Halo, and it seems the Red Team found motivation to develop their own “Halo” SKU after seeing the initial plans for Arrow Lake Halo, which were quite compelling.
Intel intends to equip it with 14 cores and integrate a larger GT3 GPU with 320 execution units along with dedicated Adamantine L4 cache, which promises to significantly boost performance. The iGPU is expected to leverage the Alchemist Xe-LPG (+) graphics architecture but will still be a solid product thanks to the optimizations Intel has implemented for its GPU line through the latest drivers.
Some features we might see on the Intel Arrow Lake Halo processors include:
- 6 Lion Cove P-Cores.
- 8 Skymont E-Cores.
- Up to 320 Xe-LPG execution units (20 Xe cores).
- Adamantine L4 cache.
- Based on TSMC’s N3 manufacturing process.
However, plans for the Intel Arrow Lake Halo processors have been significantly altered or canceled. Intel’s Arc Alchemist product line did not meet initial expectations, and the actual product introducing Lion Cove P-Cores and Skymont E-Cores is not the Halo chip, but a thin-and-light SoC called Lunar Lake. Intel was also listed as prioritizing “Halo” over Arrow Lake-S, but this is no longer accurate as Arrow Lake Desktop processors are still expected to launch in October, while there has been no leaked information or rumors regarding a Halo launch in 2024, let alone 2025.
This new list may bring hope that we might still see Intel Arrow Lake Halo chips in some form, perhaps as a limited collaborative SKU with OEM partners, but this remains to be seen. Conversely, AMD has made significant progress in producing Strix Halo processors and is expected to launch them on the market next year.
According to WCCFTECH
