With the arrival of Alder Lake-S, Intel made an important change in its mainstream consumer processors as it decided to introduce the division of two types of cores, P and E. The former are considered high-performance cores and the latter are considered high-efficiency cores that balance consumption and performance.

It is not a simple division of the same cores with different operating frequencies, each type of kernel uses a different architecturewhich means that it has completely different characteristics, IPC and consumption, until you could almost say that it is like integrating two types of processors into one.

This strategy was retained with the Raptor Lake-S as well as the Arrow Lake-S. The latest plans I’ve had a chance to see indicate that both Panther Lake-S and Nova Lake-S, arriving in 2025 and 2026, will continue to use this split of P cores and E cores, but a recent rumor says That could change completely with the architecture of Griffin Covewhich will be used in new processors that Intel will bring to market between 2027 and 2028.

Intel and the return to unified architecture

First of all, it’s important to keep in mind that Intel’s plan is subject to change, so this possible return to a single-core CPU design is not definitive, and that could not be fulfilled therefore, we must take this information very carefully.

A source privy to the rumor says Griffin Cove will be the architecture he uses Intel A14-P node, an important evolution of the Intel 18A-P node, which could use some features of the architecture that Beast Lake will use, a generation of processors that will theoretically be the first to use only high-performance cores. , but eventually ended up being cancelled.

Griffin Cove would only have P cores and those would offer a 10% to 20% CPI improvement over the previous generationNova Lake, which in turn would represent a 9% to 18% improvement in IPC compared to Panther Lake, which would have a 5% to 13% higher IPC than Arrow Lake-S. If we start adding percentages, the cumulative IPC improvement with Griffin Cove compared to Arrow Lake-S would be very large.

The Intel 14A node will be a rival of the chip giant TSMC 2nm nodeat least in theory, and it should enter the production phase in 2026. It is important to remember that this new architecture without P cores could be another option within the Intel catalog and that it may not mean an absolute abandonment of P cores and E cores .