Intel Discontinues Two Key CPU Lines

Recently, Intel has officially announced that its 12th Gen Core processors, codenamed Alder Lake, and the 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processors, codenamed Sapphire Rapids, have reached end-of-life (EOL). These two CPU families, once pivotal in Intel's lineup, are now gradually being phased out.

Although Alder Lake processors have only been on the market for four years and still deliver solid performance, Intel is streamlining its product range as newer generations, including the upcoming Arrow Lake Refresh, become available. Alder Lake's retirement carries symbolic significance—it was Intel's first consumer CPU to adopt a hybrid architecture combining high-performance cores with high-efficiency cores, marking a major shift in Intel's processor design strategy.

Intel began discontinuing several mobile Alder Lake models in 2025. The current EOL now covers the entire desktop lineup, from entry-level Celeron to flagship Core i9 models, in both boxed and tray configurations. However, existing stock won't disappear overnight: final orders can be placed until July 25, 2026, with the last shipments scheduled for January 22, 2027, giving the market a full year to manage inventory.

For servers, Sapphire Rapids Scalable processors are also included in the EOL notice, but the impact is limited. Only data center scalable models are affected; workstation variants such as Xeon W-2400, W-3400, W-2500, and W-3500 series will continue production and shipment. Like Alder Lake, Sapphire Rapids introduced Intel's hybrid core design, this time in a data center context.

Originally announced in 2019, Sapphire Rapids faced multiple delays, with shipments only beginning in 2023. Meanwhile, competing AMD server processors had already advanced through several generations, weakening Sapphire Rapids’ market presence. According to Intel, Sapphire Rapids Scalable stopped accepting new orders on September 26, 2025, with final shipments planned through March 31, 2028. Technical support for these models will transition to Intel Embedded Architecture.

Notably, Intel recently updated its EOL list, removing the Xeon Gold 6414U, confirming it will continue to be available.