Intel to Unveil Royal Core and Cobra Core Architectures

Intel has recently shared updates on its processor lineup, revealing significant advancements in its upcoming Core Ultra 200V series. This new series will feature the P-Core utilizing the Lion Cove architecture, which is also set to be incorporated into future Arrow Lake and Xeon 7 series processors. Despite Intel's decision to forgo hyper-threading in its latest core architecture, it promises a substantial performance boost with a double-digit increase in Instructions Per Cycle (IPC) compared to the current Raptor Cove.

Intel is also working on the next-generation Cobra Core architecture, which will represent a new CPU core design for its x86 processors. This architecture was first noted in internal documentation but its exact positioning within Intel's product lineup remains unclear.

Reports indicate that the successor to Lion Cove, known as Royal Core, will break from Intel's tradition by not using the "Cove" naming convention for the first time in five years, since the Sunny Cove architecture. This could signal a shift to a new naming scheme. The Royal Core is expected to debut with the forthcoming Nova Lake, with the Beast Lake possibly featuring an updated 1.1 version of Royal Core. The Beast Lake Next is anticipated to utilize the 2.0 version.

Additionally, there are indications that future versions of Royal Core, starting from version 1.1, may introduce a new hyper-threading design, potentially splitting the P-Core into two smaller cores. In version 2.0, each P-Core may support up to four threads. According to the latest internal plans, Cobra Core is slated to succeed Royal Core, though details on which processors will feature this new architecture are not yet available. The release of Cobra Core is not expected until at least 2027.