As part of their Q4 2020 earnings call, Intel gave analysts an update on the company’s 7nm technology and roadmap, citing “strong progress” regarding this manufacturing node. During the call, Intel addressed the current problems related to the company’s manufacturing issues, and semiconductor foundries.
Soon to become Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger personally reviewed progress on the company’s 7nm process, and he is pleased with the “health and recovery of the 7nm program.” Gelsinger said Intel will expand its use of external foundries for some products; however, he is confident that the majority of Intel’s 2023 CPU products will come from the company’s own factories itself.
“I’ve had the opportunity to personally examine progress on Intel’s 7nm technology over the last week. Based on initial reviews, I am pleased with the progress made on the health and recovery of the 7nm program. I am confident that the majority of our 2023 products will be manufactured internally.”- Pat Gelsinger.
Chips based on the 7nm process will debut in 2023, with client processors coming in the first half and server/HPC products following them later. Intel’s CEO Bob Swan on the other hand said that the company’s yield issues with the 7nm process were because of the company’s production process, which introduced some defects in the long run. But they have been able to rectify the fault.
“By rearchitecting these steps, we have been able to resolve the defects,” Swan said.
Swan also said that the company has streamlined the 7nm process to better ensure that the company can deliver on its 2023 roadmap as planned.
Pat Gelsinger goes on to say that the company remains committed to re-establish its lead in the process node technology, saying he’s “not interested in closing the gaps…but being the unquestioned leader in process technology.”
“Personally, I was very involved in the period where we were diminished in the marketplace and late to multi-core. In that period of time in 2005 through 2009, we turned around the company and unquestionably established the leadership position after a period where many were questioning the ability of the company to be successful yet again.”
Because of Intel’s long-term 10nm issues and 7nm delays, many analysts were fearing that Intel will fall behind its competitors as they utilize newer manufacturing technologies from 3rd party foundries like TSMC or Samsung.
Gelsinger however noted, “It’s likely that we will expand our use of external foundries for certain technologies and products in the future.”
The company leads have confirmed that Intel will stay true to its internal manufacturing practices, but have also stressed that there will still be a need for some outsourcing to happen.
On some other news, Bob Swan, Intel CEO has reaffirmed that that desktop and mobile Alder Lake CPUs will be qualified for production in 2H 2021.This means that the production will start soon after the qualification phase is over.
“As we look ahead, we are excited about the capabilities we are bringing to customers with ‘Alder Lake’ for mobile and desktop PCs and ‘Sapphire Rapids’ for the data center. These products take advantage of our enhanced SuperFin process technology and numerous architectural improvements, and both are broadly sampling to customers.
We will qualify Alder Lake desktops and notebooks for production and begin our volume ramp in the second half of 2021. We expect production qualification of Sapphire Rapids at the end of 2021.”
It has also been confirmed that Ice Lake Server and Rocket Lake-S series of desktop client processors are now shipping to customers as well. As you may already know, 12th gen Alder Lake processors will be built on a 10nm SuperFin process node.
The shift to 10nm will be a first for Intel’s desktop processors, which have been on the 14nm process node since 2015.
Lastly, according to a recent Tweet coming via Uniko’s Hardware, Intel is now expected to unveil its Alder Lake-S series of processors this September 2021. Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake-S series are expected to debut in March this year, so it makes sense for the company to take at least a minimum of six months gap with the Alder Lake lineup.
In September, Intel will also launch its 600-series chipsets for LGA1700 socket motherboards. This would be Intel’s brand new overhauled platform having full support for DDR5 memory and PCI Gen 5 interface. Alder Lake CPU lineup will bring the concept of heterogeneous multi-core to x86 processors for consumer and client PCs.
These processors would thus feature a total of 16 cores in a single package, at least initially. Alder Lake-S CPU lineup will be the first Intel architecture to offer ARM’s big.LITTLE approach to desktop processors.
Stay tuned for more tech news!
Hello, my name is NICK Richardson. I’m an avid PC and tech fan since the good old days of RIVA TNT2, and 3DFX interactive “Voodoo” gaming cards. I love playing mostly First-person shooters, and I’m a die-hard fan of this FPS genre, since the good ‘old Doom and Wolfenstein days.
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Because they said so?
Yes
I have always been an Intel fan. And I was considering the 11900K. But now I’m thinking about going for the 5900X. Mainly for AAA title gaming with a bit of streaming.
I would wait for Alder Lake but I need to build now. I figure having the 12 cores over the 8 will be a better choice. So when Alder Lake does come out I’ll still have 12 cores and can wait a few years to consider upgrading again. But then again I’m sure 8 cores will be fine for the next say three years, so maybe I should go with Rocket Lake?
To be honest I’m still torn between the 11900K and the 5900X and it’s driving me nuts. Thoughts?
If youre running games at 1440p or 4K you dont even need to go as high as ryzen 5900X. Hardware Unboxed recently did a video putting 4 CPUs head to head to see framerates at the 3 common resolutions and after 1080p it basically doesnt matter but Ryzen did win most of the time. I wouldnt touch Intel cpus with a 10 foot pole as of a couple years ago. Go ryzen but you sure as hell dont need a 5900X to game and stream. You can easily get the same performance from a 5600X. According to the results you can actually get similar performance from the 3700X or 3800X for much cheaper as well. Unless youre doing professional work, you dont need a 5900X in the slightest.
Excellent!
https://media4.giphy.com/media/Ps89uHS7n72j6/giphy.gif
Rocket lake seems to become as long lived as a rocket blowing up just after launch
Not looking good for AMD. TSMC price hike + tariffs + mandatory pricedown due to Intel new chips are gonna thin down their margins. China continues to move towards Taiwan as well. Intel can sell 14nm capacities to AMD after they completely move to 10nm and beyond XD
just joking. /s
well seeing as how much performance can be squeezed from 14nm then im looking forward for intel 7nm
Basically overly mature 14nm vs “new” 7nm – Could end up anywhere between soo soo and awesome
Go Intel! Get your sh*t together, and don’t give AMD cultists such an ego boost ever again
They are doing just fine. Just look at their recent earnings. And that despite they was supposed to be hit left and right by AMD.
Where have I heard this before? Are they recycling news releases every year now?
You dont need an engineer to uplift a company from a certain doom, what you need is a “Doctor”!
Not a good look to make an announcement after your stock plummets