While reviews of Intel’s Arrow Lake-S desktop CPUs are expected to come out this week, someone has already beaten overclockers and enthusiasts to the punch by posting pictures and a short video of the delidded component.
Images of the Arrow Lake-S CPU without its Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS) were posted by Madness! (@Madness 727) on X, in all it naked, multi-tile glory. One important point to note, however, is that the poster doesn’t specify which SKU is in picture.
I just can't stop myself from delidding stuff pic.twitter.com/XmniBHY5U8
— Madness! (@Madness727) October 18, 2024
Not that it matters, though, given that all processors in the Arrow Lake-S lineup feature the same disaggreated design. That means the same Lion Cove P-Cores, same Skymont E-Cores, four Xe GPU cores, and of course, the same 13 TOPS NPU.
As a quick primer, Intel launched its 15th Gen Arrow Lake-S earlier this month. The new desktop CPU lineup marks the chipmaker’s departure from its monolithic chip architecture. The chip itself is, in essence, a hodge-podge of different lithographies: the compute tile itself is built using TSMC’s N3B process node, while the GPU is based on N5P, and the SoC and I/O tiles are based on the older N6 process.
Another point to note is that Madness! could very well be holding a dummy tile; the PCB around the die looks too clean, with almost no trace of the residue that is typically located on the edges.
