Items tagged with 14nm
Earlier this summer, Intel released a new family of 10th Generation laptop processors based on its 10nm Ice Lake architecture. Those processors top out with 4-core/8-thread CPUs with TDPs ranging from 9W to 28W. Ice Lake was a long time coming, but it shows us a clear path forward with Intel’s arsenal to combat a resurgent AMD with its Zen 2-based processors. Today, Intel is expanding its 10th Gen processor lineup with Comet Lake-based processors. Unlike Ice Lake, however, these new Comet Lake processors continue to be based on existing 14nm++ process technology. A total of 8 processors have been announced covering both Y-Series (as low as 4.5W for fanless designs or as high as...
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Yesterday we wrote about a Korean-language news report suggesting that Intel had commissioned Samsung, a rival of sorts in the semiconductor space (as it pertains to jockeying for the title of top semiconductor producer), to manufacture its upcoming 14-nanometer Rocket Lake CPUs. Well, we have new information debunking that claim. According to the original report by SeDaily, Intel had contracted to Samsung to handle production of Rocket Lake parts in order to make sure that supply could keep up with demand. It seemed plausible, given that Intel has dealt with shortages of some currently shipping processors, and it was a rumor that had made the rounds in the past. Nevertheless, we have since found...
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Update: After reporting on this rumor yesterday, we have since learned new information debunking Samsung's involvement with Rocket Lake production. Specifically, we have it on good authority from sources close to the matter, that Samsung will in fact NOT be manufacturing CPUs of any kind for Intel. We have posted a new article with additional information. Original Article: Forget about Cannon Lake for a moment, and the troubles Intel has had in producing the 10-nanometer part, hence the multiple delays. That may end up a short-lived product as Intel looks to different 10nm chip architectures. That said, Intel is not finished squeezing its 14nm process node for all it is worth, and may enlist...
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Since the launch of AMD's Ryzen processors last spring, the processor market has been an interesting, and even exciting one to follow. It seemed like overnight, we went from quad-cores being the norm to six and eight-core processors taking over on the desktop. As AMD became even more aggressive after its Zen launch, we wound up seeing 16-core and higher CPUs come out from both it and Intel before the year ended. 2018 has been good to CPUs so far as well. We saw the launch of the second-gen Ryzen (not to be confused with Zen 2), impressive follow-ups to AMD's EPYC series, and Intel launched its refined 14nm 9th-gen Coffee Lake-S processors, including a new eight-core flagship model. So, what's...
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Intel posted its highest third-quarter revenue in the history of the company, raking in $19.2 billion, a 19 percent jump from the same quarter a year prior. This led to an even bigger jump in profit, with Intel posting net income of $6.4 billion, up 42 percent year-over-year. What makes these numbers even more impressive is that Intel contended with a shortage of 14-nanometer silicon. Earlier this month, Intel CFO and interim CEO Bob Swan said the chip maker was surprised by the return to growth in the PC market, noting that "second-quarter PC shipments grew globally for the first time in six years, according to [market research firm] Gartner." At the time, he also admitted that the rebound had...
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Earlier today, a report was making the rounds claiming that Intel had abruptly decided to kill its 10nm chip production. The possibility that Intel would mothball its 10nm line definitely caught a lot of attention because the company has admitted to delays in bring processors based on the manufacturing tech to market, and volume production wasn't expected to occur until the second half of 2019. The original report that alleged that Intel 10nm tech is dead stemmed from Semi Accurate, which wrote: Now we are hearing from trusted moles that the process is indeed dead and that is a good thing for Intel, if they had continued along their current path the disaster would have been untenable....
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Intel has some potential trouble on its hands. The company warned about potential supply issues with its 14nm processors as early as July, when it announced its Q2 2018 earnings. At the time, the company said that its delayed 10nm processors had resulted in unanticipated additional demand for its 14nm processors. These shortages have affected all of Intel's processor lines (server, desktop, notebooks), including its newly released Whiskey Lake notebook processors. Luckily for Intel, it has a backup plan. The company announced this month in a support document [PDF] that it is shifting some of its 14nm products testing to one of its facilities in Vietnam to alleviate...
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Intel 7th Gen Core Series Kaby Lake WaferIntel is readying a new family of processors based on its next-gen Kaby Lake microarchitecture. We’ve heard quite a bit about Kaby Lake over the last few months, and were even able to show you it in action last week while covering IDF, but today we’ve got many more details to share on the microarchitecture that will be foundation of Intel’s upcoming 7th Generation Core processors.If you’re unfamiliar with Kaby Lake, it is the follow-up product to last year’s Skylake. Kaby Lake borrows heavily from Skylake; its CPU cores, cache structure, and graphics engine are similar, and Kaby Lake is still manufactured using a 14nm process. There have been a number...
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Samsung today announced that it's begun mass producing 14nm LPP (Low-Power Plus) logic chips based on its three-dimensional (3D) FinFET process. The South Korean chip maker also confirmed that Qualcomm is among its "many foundry customers" and that it is fabricating Qualcomm's forthcoming Snapdragon 820 SoCs. FinFET isn't new to Samsung by any means. In the first quarter of last year, Samsung launched its own Exynos 7 Octa processor built on the industry's first 14nm LPE (Low-Power Early) process. The new LPP version is the second generation of Samsung's 14nm FinFET process technology and it will serve as the backbone of not only Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820, but Samsung's own Exynos 8 Octa chips....
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Today's a good day for for AMD. GlobalFoundries, the former manufacturing arm of AMD that became fully independent in 2012, announced today that it achieved "silicon success" with the first AMD products using a 14nm FinFET manufacturing process. Going forward, multiple AMD products will benefit from this. The 14nm FinFET process was developed by Samsung and licensed to GlobalFoundries last year as part of a strategic collaboration the two firms entered into. It was always the intention of GlobalFoundries to integrate 14nm FinFET technology into products for AMD, the latter of which is currently in the process of validating 14nn Low Power Plus (14LPP) production samples. "FinFET technology is...
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Earlier today, Barron's published an article speculating that GlobalFoundries would delay its 14nm product ramp by several quarters as it struggled with unspecified production problems. GlobalFoundries has denied any such issues in a statement to Hot Hardware, and has specifically told us that its 14nm ramp plans remain on-track. The state of GlobalFoundries 14nm ramp is important for multiple reasons. Earlier this year, the company announced that it would drop its own plans for a hybrid 14nm/20nm hybrid node (14nm XM) and would instead adopt Samsung's 14nm process technology. At least some of this capacity would be dedicated to Samsung's production, making GF a second-source facility for...
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Apple knows better than to cut off its nose to spite its face, as the saying goes, hence why it still contracts Samsung to build the custom System-on-Chips (SoCs) that end up in iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. Will that relationship continue between these two bitter rivals? It would appear so, based on comments made by Kim Ki-nam, present of Samsung's semiconductor business. Ki-nam told reporters that once Samsung begins to supply Apple with SoCs using its latest technology, profits "will improve positively," ZDNet reports. While that's not an outright confirmation that Samsung will have a hand in building Apple's custom A9 SoC based on its 14nm manufacturing process, it's about as close...
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Intel's 14nm Broadwell Production Throws Down Gauntlet For Major Semiconductor Competitors In Mobile
If Intel's recent 14nm Broadwell Y unveil has made anything clear, it's that the company is now determined to go toe-to-toe with every foundry manufacturer at the 14nm node. It wasn't initially clear if this would be the case. While Intel made a big splash with its first 14nm announcements, news of the delays and a robust rebuttal from TSMC concerning the health and capability of its own 20nm and 16nm offerings made it seem as though Intel might have been rocked back on its heels and fighting a defensive front. Where other semiconductor manufacturers have openly acknowledged the end of Moore's law's cost scaling (meaning 20nm and 16nm silicon is expected to be more expensive than previous generations),...
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Intel has announced a new partnership with mobile SoC developer Rockchip, with plans to bring new Android products to China beginning in the first half of 2015. The partnership will use Intel's SoFIA platform with an integrated 3G radio and Atom processor initially, though Intel does plan to deliver a follow-up version of that platform with LTE connectivity later next year. The idea behind the partnership, according to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, is to leverage Rockchip's market penetration and channel sales and combine them with Intel's own CPU technology. When asked, Krzanich indicated that Rockchip would provide certain supplementary technology, possibly including the GPU, and said that Intel...
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