Intel's successor to the low-end "Alder Lake-N" series is reportedly set to be the Wildcat Lake lineup, as revealed in new shipping manifests.
For those unaware, Team Blue plans to launch another mobile lineup alongside its "Panther Lake-H" SKUs, which is now rumored to be the "Wildcat Lake" series. According to shipping manifests disclosed by @x86deadandback, Intel's Wildcat Lake SoCs are set to be the next "ultra-low-power" mobile ships, apparently replacing the Alder Lake-N series, which is yet again a lineup that targets power-efficient devices such as mini-PCs.
The shipping manifests reveal that Intel's Wildcat Lake SoCs are expected to feature the BGA socket type, which differs in soldering techniques from the mainstream LGA socket. Specifically, Wildcat Lake will utilize the "BGA 1516" socket, measuring 35 x 25 mm. The shipping manifests interestingly mention CPU reball equipment for the lineup, suggesting that it is indeed in the early verification stages.
We are uncertain about the lineup's specifications for now, given that details surrounding it haven't emerged in the past, but there are rumors that the SoC will employ Cougar Cove P-Cores and LPE Darkmont E-Cores, particularly in a 2+4 configuration. Another interesting fact is that this lineup might be the first alongside Panther Lake where we will see Intel's 18A node in action, so this is something constructive for Intel Foundry in terms of mainstream node adoption.
Given that the lineup is targeted to be a successor to Intel's "Alder Lake-N" SKUs, we might see Wildcat Lake in action on low-powered devices, mainly laptops and mini-PCs, hence performance won't be the primary focus here. Similar to Alder Lake-N, the SoCs will come with low TDPs, hence the efficiency is what matters the most, and this will be the case with graphical performance as well.