Intel's upcoming 42-core Nova Lake SKU allegedly upgraded to 44 cores — New config frees up 6P+12E tiles that could trickle down as locked bLLC variants
Tom's Hardware 2026-04-05
Summary:
A 42-core SKU from the upcoming Nova Lake-S CPU family has reportedly been upgraded to 44 cores by swapping the 6P+12E tile with an 8P+12E tile, allowing the chip to achieve symmetry across its dual-tile config. Those leftover 6P+12E tiles could now become locked variants with 144 MB of bLLC as a new 22-core SKU (6P+12E+4LPE).