On Wednesday, Intel held the Intel Foundry Services Direct Connect for the first time, an event just for its own manufacturing division. A lot of news was presented about this. This includes, among other things, a reinforcement of the existing roadmap, details on new processes and a renaming: Intel Foundry Services will be renamed Intel Foundry.
Details about 18A and 14A
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger emphasized an AI focus in its own semiconductor factories, which means the company is probably speculating on suitable orders. In order for these to come, the offer must first be right. And Intel is on schedule for this: As announced in 2021, the manufacturing division should actually manage to achieve five process leaps by 2025. Next year, products using the 18A process are expected to come off the assembly line in series. With this level of production, the company would like to overtake TSMC again after Intel has fallen behind in recent years.
Source: Intel From 2021 to 2025, Intel wanted to create five process leaps – and that should actually succeed. The importance of 18A production should also be underlined by the production of the company's own Clearwater Forest CPUs, which has now started, and the first customer: Microsoft has apparently already ordered the corresponding chips. In addition, large providers of development software, such as Synopsys and Cadence, are now said to have adapted their programs to the coming process. Without reference to specific production, there is also talk of a partnership with ARM to produce future Neoverse SoCs.
Source: Intel On Intel's new manufacturing roadmap, the 14A process is mentioned for the first time, with which high-NA lighting will debut.
Equally interesting: Intel Core Ultra: Next-Gen CPU with unusual configuration appeared
Looking to the future, Intel also unveiled the successor to 18A production at the event: This will be called 14A and will be the first process in the world to use ASML machines with high NA exposure. The 14A-E process, which is designed for efficiency, is expected to be in use by 2027, so 14A can probably be expected as early as 2026. At the same time, Intel also wants to further improve the older processes: The 18A will probably be supplemented by the faster 18A-P by then, and the current Intel 3 process will be known as Intel 3-T (Through Silicon Vias), Intel 3-T in the coming years. E and Intel 3-PT will be launched.
Quelle: Intel via Tom’s Hardware