Intel 18A-P Process Targets Diamond Rapids and Nova Lake With Big Frequency Gains
Intel is preparing its 18A-P process technology for two major upcoming CPU families: Diamond Rapids for Xeon servers and Nova Lake for consumer Core processors. The new node is designed to push performance and efficiency forward by combining Gate-All-Around transistor technology, backside power delivery, Power Boost, and improved interconnect design.
At Hot Chips, Intel shared more detail on how 18A-P builds on the foundation of Intel 18A. Rather than being a minor refinement, 18A-P is shaping up to be a meaningful step for next-generation CPUs, especially in workloads where higher frequency, better power delivery, and improved thermal behavior matter.
The headline claim is significant: Intel says 18A-P can deliver more than 9% higher performance at the same power, or more than 18% lower power at the same performance compared with Intel 18A. In measured x86 silicon, Intel has also demonstrated up to 30% higher operating frequency at low voltage when comparing CPU cores using GAA with backside power delivery against equivalent FinFET-based cores.
That 30% figure is especially important because it was measured directly on production-class silicon rather than being based purely on projections. At 0.5V, Intel says the GAA and backside power combination allowed cores to reach 30% higher frequency. The comparison was made at matched voltage on similar core designs, helping isolate the benefit of the process technology rather than architectural changes.
Intel 18A-P combines several key technologies to achieve these gains. RibbonFET, Intel’s Gate-All-Around transistor design, wraps the gate around the channel on all four sides. This improves control over the transistor and helps enable better performance at lower voltages. That is particularly useful for modern CPUs, where efficiency is just as important as peak speed.
The second major piece is backside power delivery, known as PowerVia. Traditional chip designs route power and signals through the front side of the wafer, creating congestion above the transistors. PowerVia moves power delivery to the back of the wafer, freeing the front side for signal routing and reducing voltage losses. This can help limit voltage droop, especially during high-current events when a CPU rapidly boosts frequency.
Intel says PowerVia has already shown measurable benefits with Intel 18A, including a 5% frequency increase at 1.1V and a 7.5% increase at 0.95V. With 18A-P, Intel is extending those benefits further through new device options, better interconnects, and improved thermal design.
One of the most important additions in Intel 18A-P is Power Boost. This feature introduces a dual-contact architecture with ultra-low-resistance contacts, helping increase drive current and allowing higher frequencies without increasing capacitance. Intel says Power Boost remains design-rule compatible with Intel 18A, which could make it easier for chip designers to move between the two process versions.
Intel 18A-P also expands the RibbonFET portfolio with multiple device options tuned for different goals. Lower-power devices are aimed at designs that prioritize efficiency and lower capacitance, while high-performance device options are designed to take advantage of Power Boost. According to Intel, one high-performance option can enable around 10% faster operation without raising electrical load.
Compared with Intel 18A, the newer 18A-P process also reduces external resistance by 20% for NMOS devices and 12% for PMOS devices. Lower resistance helps drive more current, which in turn supports higher frequencies at matched capacitance.
Interconnect improvements are another key part of the 18A-P story. As transistors become faster, the wiring inside the chip can become a limiting factor. At higher voltages, the transistors may be capable of running faster, but signal delays in the wires can hold performance back. Intel is addressing that issue by adding two extra coarse metal layers near the top of the metal stack. These layers provide lower-resistance wiring, reduce routing congestion, and cut interconnect delay.
Intel says these additional metal layers can deliver a 3% frequency improvement at 1.1V and a 2% improvement at 0.65V, while also reducing power by about 2%. These may sound like modest gains on their own, but in advanced semiconductor design, multiple small improvements across transistors, wiring, power delivery, and thermals can combine into a much larger overall uplift.
Thermal performance is also getting attention. Intel says 18A-P improves heat dissipation through material upgrades and advanced design tools focused on thermal optimization. The company claims a 50% improvement in bond stack thermal conductance, which can translate to a 20% to 40% improvement in overall stack thermal resistance. Better heat extraction can help CPUs sustain higher frequencies for longer, especially in dense server and AI workloads.
Diamond Rapids is expected to be one of the first major products to use Intel 18A-P. This next-generation Xeon platform is being designed for high core counts and heavy data center workloads. Intel has indicated that Diamond Rapids could scale up to 256 cores, doubling the core count compared with the prior generation. To support that many cores, Intel is also changing package layout by moving the I/O toward the center, helping provide more uniform memory access across the chip.
That design choice matters for AI, cloud, and enterprise workloads, where memory bandwidth and latency can strongly influence performance. Higher per-core performance from 18A-P, combined with more cores and improved memory access, could make Diamond Rapids a major platform for Intel’s server roadmap.
Nova Lake is also expected to benefit from Intel 18A-P. As a future Core processor family, Nova Lake could bring these manufacturing improvements to consumer desktops and laptops. If Intel’s stated gains carry over successfully, Nova Lake may offer higher frequencies, better efficiency, and stronger performance scaling than current-generation chips.
Intel is positioning 18A-P as the beginning of a broader multi-generation performance roadmap. The company is already exploring future technologies such as ruthenium interconnects with air gaps, which could reduce capacitance compared with copper in extremely small wiring structures. Intel is also researching stacked logic designs, where different types of logic could be placed vertically rather than spread across a flat plane. These approaches are intended to reduce signal travel distance and continue improving performance as traditional scaling becomes harder.
The bigger picture is that Intel sees the combination of Gate-All-Around transistors and backside power delivery as a major new era for CPU performance. FinFET technology delivered several generations of gains, and Intel believes GAA with backside power can begin a similar curve. With measured gains already reaching 30% at low voltage and double-digit improvements at higher voltages, 18A-P could become one of the most important nodes in Intel’s comeback strategy.
For buyers and industry watchers, the key products to watch are Diamond Rapids Xeon processors and Nova Lake Core CPUs. Both are expected to be among the earliest chips to showcase the advantages of Intel 18A-P. If Intel delivers on its targets, these processors could bring meaningful improvements in frequency, power efficiency, thermal behavior, and per-core performance when they arrive.
