Panther Lake teardown: Intel 18A near TSMC N3E, newer nodes still ahead

SemiAnalysis tore down Intel's Core Ultra 7 365 (Panther Lake), the first shipping chip on 18A with RibbonFET and PowerVia. Its logic density is similar to TSMC N3E and 18.6% denser than Intel 3, but trails TSMC N3P, N2 and Samsung SF2.

• 18A is 18.6% denser than Intel 3 logic in a representative-cell model
• 18A density matches TSMC N3E but trails N3P, N2 and Samsung SF2
• Four stacked ribbons per transistor versus three on Samsung SF2
• NPU 5 uses 36.9% less area than Lunar Lake's NPU 4