Leaked die shots of Intel’s upcoming Nova Lake-HX and Nova Lake-H processors suggest the chips are built from tiles made at two different foundries. According to tipster Abhishek Yadav on X, the most important part of each chip, the CPU tile, is reportedly manufactured by TSMC rather than Intel.
Not One Chip, but Six Tiles
The leak shows that these processors aren’t a single piece of silicon. They use a tiled design, with six smaller tiles joined together on one package. Splitting a processor into tiles lets a chipmaker build each part on the manufacturing process best suited to it, instead of making everything on one node.
According to the leak, the main CPU tile, where all the processor cores sit, is made by TSMC on its 2nm N2P process. The remaining tiles are reportedly Intel’s own:
- Hub tile (72mm²): Contains 4 LPE (low-power efficient) cores and is built on Intel 18A-P.
- I/O tile (58mm²): Also built on Intel 18A-P.
- GPU tile (26mm²): Includes 4 Xe graphics cores and is built on Intel 3.
The leak also mentions a variant with a 12 Xe core GPU. In that version, one larger GPU tile replaces the small GPU tile and the dummy tile.
Nova Lake-HX vs. Nova Lake-H
The two chips differ mainly in their CPU tile and overall package size:
| Nova Lake-HX | Nova Lake-H | |
|---|---|---|
| Core configuration | 8P + 16E + 4 LPE | 4P + 8E + 4 LPE |
| CPU tile size | 104mm² (largest tile) | 55mm² |
| Package size | 12 x 30mm (360mm²) | 12 x 23mm (276mm²) |
The GPU, hub, and I/O tiles are reportedly identical on both chips. Only the CPU tile and the package size change between them.
Intel Designs the Chip, but TSMC Builds Its Core
The tipster’s takeaway is that Intel is designing the processor, but its most important part comes from TSMC. If the leak is accurate, this would be a notable arrangement for a company that has long made its own flagship chips. It also shows how common mixed-foundry designs have become, as chipmakers combine manufacturing processes to balance performance, efficiency, and cost.
Intel hasn’t officially confirmed any of these details. Die shots can be hard to interpret, and tile sizes, process nodes, and configurations could change before the processors are announced. Treat these figures as unconfirmed until Intel shares its own specifications.
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