Will Intel's Next-Gen Arrow Lake CPUs Kick Hyper Threading To The Curb?
Documents leaked by renowned leaker @yuuki_ans on X reveal that early Arrow Lake samples have Hyper Threading disabled by default, which to some has implied that Intel may be looking to launch its first consumer CPUs without support for Hyper Threading since 2006. However, we've read the fine print, and it seems like the leaked documents may have been taken out of context—those very same papers claim Arrow Lake will in fact have Hyper Threading before they release.
The documents concern early samples for Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake-S CPUs for desktops and high-end laptops. In fact, these samples are so early they are called 15th Generation chips, even though Intel has rebranded and it seems Arrow Lake will arrive as the Core Series 2 lineup. The specific snippet of the documents that implies Arrow Lake-S won't support Hyper Threading is in the specifications for the prototype Arrow Lake-S computer, which uses a motherboard intended for canceled Meteor Lake-S desktop CPUs. In it, the spec sheet reads "8 IA Cores/8 threads (Disabled in BIOS)," which means each core has just a single thread, when Hyper Threading means two threads per core.
This would seem to be the smoking gun that Intel is ditching Hyper Threading, but there's a note above the spec sheet, saying that "[redacted] is configured in the BIOS to turn off the performance cores due to a hw [hardware] issue... This issue will be fixed in a future CPU stepping."
The documents concern early samples for Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake-S CPUs for desktops and high-end laptops. In fact, these samples are so early they are called 15th Generation chips, even though Intel has rebranded and it seems Arrow Lake will arrive as the Core Series 2 lineup. The specific snippet of the documents that implies Arrow Lake-S won't support Hyper Threading is in the specifications for the prototype Arrow Lake-S computer, which uses a motherboard intended for canceled Meteor Lake-S desktop CPUs. In it, the spec sheet reads "8 IA Cores/8 threads (Disabled in BIOS)," which means each core has just a single thread, when Hyper Threading means two threads per core.
This would seem to be the smoking gun that Intel is ditching Hyper Threading, but there's a note above the spec sheet, saying that "[redacted] is configured in the BIOS to turn off the performance cores due to a hw [hardware] issue... This issue will be fixed in a future CPU stepping."
It's not entirely clear if this note refers to Hyper Threading, but it and the spec sheet do line up very conveniently as they discuss disabling a feature for P-cores in the BIOS. Assuming the note is about Hyper Threading, then Intel is planning on fixing it in newer versions of Arrow Lake, and may have already done so since these documents could be quite old (predating Intel's CPU branding).
Plus, even if the note has nothing to do with Hyper Threading, the spec sheet is pretty clear that it has only been disabled in the BIOS, not that it has been permanently removed. Alder Lake CPUs support AVX512 instructions on their P-cores and they would be completely functional if Intel didn't fuse them off or disable them via the BIOS, likely for compatibility reasons.
Plus, even if the note has nothing to do with Hyper Threading, the spec sheet is pretty clear that it has only been disabled in the BIOS, not that it has been permanently removed. Alder Lake CPUs support AVX512 instructions on their P-cores and they would be completely functional if Intel didn't fuse them off or disable them via the BIOS, likely for compatibility reasons.
As long as Intel doesn't encounter more issues with its multi-threading technology, we can expect Arrow Lake to include Hyper Threading just like Meteor Lake and every other CPU before it going back to the original Core lineup in 2006.
