Intel 18A, supply issues emerge: Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake in short supply on the market
Intel would be facing difficulties in ensuring adequate supplies of the Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake processors, the first client solutions based on the Intel 18A manufacturing process.
According to various supply chain sources collected by journalist Tim Culpan, the availability of the new chips destined for notebooks would be below expectations, creating problems for both major industry brands and ODM manufacturers responsible for assembling the systems.
Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake form the foundation of the new Core Ultra Series 3 and Core Series 3 families and represent a strategic shift for Intel. The two products are among the first to utilize the 18A process, considered internally as the key piece of the technological revival plan with which the company aims to regain ground against TSMC and Samsung in advanced manufacturing technologies.
Market reports indicate that several PC manufacturers are encountering difficulties in obtaining sufficient quantities of processors. The situation is particularly delicate because Intel has already encouraged several business partners to plan the transition to the new platforms, while the availability of previous generations is expected to gradually diminish.
In recent months, it emerged that the company had warned customers about possible limitations in the supplies of the Alder Lake, Raptor Lake, and Arrow Lake families. However, according to some supply chain sources, the situation for the new Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake may not necessarily be better than that of previous products.
During a meeting with the press in Taipei, Alex Katouzian, General Manager of the Client Computing and Physical AI Group at Intel, acknowledged the existence of "some shortages" in supplies, emphasizing that the company is working to resolve the issue. However, no specific indications were provided regarding the timelines needed for a return to full availability.
One of the most interesting aspects of the situation concerns the very structure of the new processors. Although the main Compute Tile is produced internally by Intel, some key components, particularly the I/O dies, continue to be manufactured by TSMC. This means that, despite Intel's strong emphasis on internal production, the new chips still maintain a significant dependence on the production capacity of the Taiwanese giant.
According to some industry sources, the current saturation of TSMC's production lines could contribute to the supply difficulties. The Taiwanese foundry is currently engaged in production for numerous strategic clients in the AI and HPC sectors, and Intel may not represent a top priority in the allocation of available capacity.
Complicating the picture further is the recent debut of Clearwater Forest, marketed as Xeon 6+, the first server processor also based on the 18A process. Some market players speculate that Intel may have decided to allocate a significant portion of available production capacity to data center processors, which are traditionally characterized by higher margins compared to notebook market solutions. The company has not confirmed this interpretation. When asked about the allocation of 18A production capacity among different products, Kevork Kechichian, General Manager of the Data Center Group at Intel, merely described the management of production resources as a "complex" process.