Intel’s interim CEO, Bob Swan, has printed an open letter promising to spend an additional $1 billion to spice up 14nm manufacturing throughout its websites in Oregon, Ireland, Arizona, and Israel. This is in response to the “undoubtedly tight” provide of Intel silicon throughout the PC market, and since the 10nm battle may be very actual…
Swan says that the additional cash Intel is spending on 14nm manufacturing, together with “other efficiencies,” will enhance the availability to deal with the elevated demand. The suggestion within the letter is that as a result of the PC market as a complete has grown, for the primary time in six years, that Intel is struggling to fulfill this shocking additional demand.
That definitely performs into it partly, however Intel has additionally put stress on its 14nm amenities by the failure to transition CPU silicon to the long-awaited, much-delayed 10nm manufacturing course of. That means each its chipset silicon and processors are being produced on the identical lithography, the place historically the CPUs would have moved on to pastures and processes new by now.
Swan’s open letter, nevertheless, doesn’t actually go into that aside from re-affirming Intel’s perception that it’s going to hit quantity manufacturing of 10nm components someday in 2019.
It’s an fascinating transfer by Intel, publicly confirming the long-suspected provide issues Intel had been experiencing with its 14nm provide and manufacturing. The reality its interim CEO has felt it essential to go on document to allay investor fears is fascinating.
“We continue to believe we will have at least the supply to meet the full-year revenue outlook we announced in July,” says Swan, “which was $4.5 billion higher than our January expectations.”
But so is the actual fact he appears to be nearly solely attributing that to the truth that the PC market is simply so gosh-darn wholesome proper now.
It’s an comprehensible spin – you guys simply love our product a lot we’re struggling to make sufficient of it – however doesn’t inform the entire story. The provide is tight due to the 10nm manufacturing roadblock and selecting to create extra new processors and chipsets, such because the Core i9 9900K and Core i7 9700K CPUs and Z390 motherboards, all primarily based on the identical 14nm design.
“We’re making progress with 10nm,” says Swan. “Yields are improving and we continue to expect volume production in 2019.”
But that’s nonetheless a good distance away, with some experiences suggesting it will be two years earlier than Intel’s knowledge centre-first technique will ship 10nm server chips. In the meantime, will an additional $1bn be sufficient to make sure that Intel can produce sufficient new Core i9 and i7 processors to make the upcoming launch extra than simply the paper launch Coffee Lake was?
Fingers crossed that additional $1bn goes into creating a complete lot of 14nm octacore silicon for us to jam into our gaming PCs. That may simply tide us over till Ice Lake…
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