Intel confirms ‘Coyote Cove’ cores for Nova Lake and ‘Panther Cove’ cores for Diamond Rapids

The roadmap for Intel's 2026 CPU families has become significantly clearer. In a new update to its official Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) reference manual, Intel has given us the first public confirmation of the core microarchitectures that will power its next generation “Nova Lake” client and “Diamond Rapids” server processors.

As shown by InstLatX64 (via Wccftech), for the client-side, the document shows that the Nova Lake architecture, slated for a 2026 release, will be built using Coyote Cove P-cores and Arctic Wolf E-cores. This is the architecture that is expected to bring massive core count increases to the desktop (up to 52 cores), a new LGA 1954 socket, and Xe3 integrated graphics for mobile. The confirmation puts to rest earlier speculation that Panther Cove might be used in the client space.

Things get even more interesting on the server side. The next-generation Xeon platform, Diamond Rapids, will be the first to use the more advanced Panther Cove P-cores. However, Intel has revealed that these initial Panther Cove server chips will not feature simultaneous multithreading (SMT) nor E-cores. The company plans to reinstate SMT in the follow-up generation codenamed “Coral Rapids”.

The documentation also hints at the previously mentioned entry-level “Wildcat Lake” platform (Cougar Cove P-cores and Darkmont E-cores), which is expected to succeed Twin Lake. While we've still got the launch of Panther Lake for mobile to get through first, this official document gives us our most solid look yet at Intel's architectural plans for 2026, confirming the core names for the upcoming client and data centre platforms.

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KitGuru says: With Intel's 2026 roadmap starting to take shape, do you think it will be the year of Intel?

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