Intel has led the semiconductor industry in new node deployments and process technology for many years, but the company started to put particular emphasis on that leadership as it prepared to battle ARM in the mobile market in 2011 - 2012. At the time, Intel enjoyed a full node advantage over its rivals and was the first company to deploy FinFETs. As it entered the mobile market, Intel was happy to talk up the advantage it would gain from superior manufacturing technology. Those advantages mostly didn't materialize. We've discussed the economics behind Intel's failure to win mobile market shar
Intel Is at a CrossroadsThere's yet another question buried in these discussions -- exactly how much does process node leadership matter in an era where each node's improvements are smaller than the one before? This point has ramifications beyond Intel. Only certain kinds of silicon designs benefit from moving to FinFETs in the first place, which is why GlobalFoundries has created its 22FDX and 12FDX FD-SOI offerings. EUV will need to be cost-effective before some designs that could benefit from smaller geometries can afford to move to the new node. And even before Intel had to delay its 10nm node, the company had ma
Intel Is at a Crossroads… Tweet opens in a new tab Unlike AMD and many other chip manufacturers, Intel both designs and fabricates its own processors. The usual process involves building top chips from the center of the wafer, while the edge pieces are often trashed because they're not viable. …
… GlobalFoundries, Samsung, and IBM are pushing ahead with plans for a hybrid 14-20nm process, in which chips would marry 14nm front-end manufacturing with 20nm interconnects. …
… Intel's 28nm modems are built by TSMC and that foundry handled some of the company's SoFIA chips and manufacturing for the related Rockchip deal some of the SoFIA tablet and smartphone processors never went into production, but the Rockchip processors supposedly did . …
… In many ways, it's a company at a crossroads, grappling with manufacturing issues at a difficult moment, just as the microprocessor industry is evolving in new and interesting ways. …
… Swan gave interviews as recently at this week in which he discussed Intel's manufacturing strategy going forward in broad terms. …
… TSMC announced their 6nm process last year, it typically takes about 12 months to ramp up for volume manufacturing, and that means the node could be ready for production soon. …
Several years ago, Intel announced that it wouldn't finish its 14nm manufacturing plant, Fab 42 . When Intel announced the move, 22nm was still Intel's leading-edge process node, though 14nm was on the horizon and would start rolling out in mobile products late that year. …
… Both TSMC and GlobalFoundries implemented multiple process types of 28nm but have moved to a unified 20nm design. …
… Insurmountable advantages in semiconductor manufacturing are hard to come by and harder to keep. …
… Samsung's 14nm technology is based on a respin of its original 20nm process, not the 20nm process it publicly reported when it first discussed the technology. …