One Generation, Three Names, and a Spec Sheet That Changed

Series 3 is Intel's third Core Ultra generation, announced at CES in January 2026. The same silicon appears under three labels: Intel markets it as Core Ultra series 3, the processor numbers all begin with a 3, and the engineering codename is Panther Lake. Anything sold as Core Ultra 300 is this generation.

The reason to read the number carefully is that the tier names carried over. A Core Ultra 7 exists in each of the last three generations, so the marketing name alone tells you nothing about how old a machine is. The three digits after it do.