I recently read a few articles on upcoming panther lake. Confirmed stuff, not leaks.
So the top end SKUs are locked to LPDDR5 but LPCAMM is supported and might be an option. If Framework doesn’t invest in LPCAMM then the better iGPU is just totally off limits. There hasn’t been any Lunar Lake option and I don’t think there ever will be. By the same token, without LPCAMM, high end Panther Lake won’t happen.
Then there is the issue with Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt 4? Really Intel? Still relying on an integrated TB4 controller when you have created and released TB5?! Somehow, I don’t think Framework is going to put in the extra cost to make the next Intel version TB5, that goes double if they aren’t going to be using top end Panther Lake as that would be a weird pairing.
AMD isn’t much better for Thunderbolt either which is just a huge let down.
The only bright spot is that if Framework does decide to go CAMM, they might as well do it for every board going forward.
Actually, I see top end Panther Lake doesn’t have enough PCIe lanes to serve all the TB ports and a 4 lane SSD.
Great, so no top end Panther Lake. What a disappointment. Good job Intel, you played yourself.
I have a work-supplied Lunar Lake device, and I like its power efficiency. I suspect that power budgets are what limits Thunderbolt4 and too-few PCIe lanes than are needed for full-bandwidth operation.
I might also speculate about the error rate actually producing the 18A tiles, Intel needs to show they’re a success and that they’ve rebounded from the last decade of under-investing in their future silicon production processes.
I was waiting for Panther Lake since I have a ton of thunderbolt peripherals and am unwilling to risk compatibility by moving to an AMD board…that and none of the AMD boards give me a compelling enough reason to move off of the 12th gen Intel I am currently on. If Framework releases a Panther Lake board I will likely move to it, however I am beginning to suspect that I will actually be waiting for Nova Lake.
AMD is not blowing away Intel in the mobile CPU realm by any stretch of the imagination.