Intel officially launched the Wildcat Lake Core 300 line aimed at budget laptops and compact edge‑AI boxes. Each SKU pairs two “Cougar Cove” performance cores with four low‑power “Darkmont” cores, delivering up to six CPU threads and a graphics block that can host two Xe3 units. An integrated NPU tops out at 40 TOPS, qualifying the chip for Copilot+ AI PC certification.

The package uses a dual‑die architecture fabricated on Intel’s 18A process. The primary die houses the 6‑core CPU, memory controller, 4 MB cache and the Xe display‑media engine, supporting LPDDR5X at 7,467 MT/s or DDR5 up to 6,400 MT/s. A secondary die handles I/O, offering six PCIe Gen 4 lanes, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB 3.2, eight USB 2.0, Wi‑Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0, with dual‑channel memory boosting AI bandwidth.

With battery claims of 18.5 hours of Netflix, 12.5 hours of office work and 9.6 hours of Zoom with AI effects, Intel is targeting the same price tier as Apple’s $599 MacBook Neo. More than 70 OEMs—from Acer to Xiaomi—have signed up, promising competitive RAM and SSD bundles. For users needing significantly more horsepower, Intel points to the similarly‑built “Panther Lake” series.