Latest news with #KevinO'Buckley
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel's Next Chip Node, 14A, to Boost CPU Speeds With 'Turbo Cells'
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. As Intel prepares to manufacture chips with its 18A process, the company is previewing its next chip node, 14A, which will feature a mysterious "turbo cell" technology meant to boost CPU and even GPU speeds. First disclosed a year ago, Intel's 14A process promises to pack even more transistors on the silicon, improving the CPU density. On Tuesday, the company confirmed the 14A process will offer a 15% to 20% performance-per-watt increase over the 18A process. The 14A process will introduce a new 'turbo cell' technology designed to further increase the chip's speeds, 'including CPU maximum frequency and GPU critical paths,' Intel says. 'Turbo Cells allows designers to optimize a mix of more performant cells and more power-efficient cells within a design block, enabling a tailored balance between power, performance, and area for target applications,' Intel said in a statement, which was first reported by PCWorld. So far, Intel hasn't elaborated on the turbo cell feature. But the company discussed the 14A process at an Intel foundry event in San Jose as it tries to take on rival TSMC, the major chip maker for AMD, Apple, and Nvidia. Intel's 18A process is its most considerable effort yet to become a major semiconductor manufacturer after investing $90 billion over the last four years to build its foundry business. In addition to 18A, Intel says it's already talking with customers about using the 14A process. This includes distributing a Process Design Kit, or blueprint files, to help customers develop their chip designs for a specific process node. 'Multiple customers have expressed their intent to build test chips' on 14A, according to Intel. During Tuesday's event, Intel SVP for foundry services, Kevin O'Buckley, went out of his way to say that Intel is focused on becoming an "AI services company" at a time when AI chip demand has skyrocketed. He then showed a 3D image of what appeared to be an Nvidia-like enterprise-grade GPU packed with high-speed memory. Executives also emphasized that Intel has been listening to customer feedback to make the company's chip technology follow a "predictable 2-year cycle," and easy to plan around. Intel's roadmap adds that the 14A process will arrive in 2027, alongside a '14A-E' node developed to contain some additional 'feature extensions.' Along with the turbo cell technology, 14A chips will feature Intel's second-generation 'RibbonFET' and backside power delivery system to further boost performance. In the meantime, Intel plans to use its 18A chip node to develop semiconductors not only for third-party customers but also for its own business. This includes Intel's upcoming 'Panther Lake' laptop-focused CPUs, which are scheduled to arrive in the second half of this year. The company is also developing another node, called 18A-P, which will arrive next year. Intel says it's been 'designed to deliver enhanced performance to a broader set of foundry customers,' suggesting it can be used for chips outside general CPU computing.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel announces 18A process node has entered risk production — crucial milestone comes as company ramps to Panther Lake chips
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. At its Vision 2025 conference, Intel announced today that it has entered risk production of its 18A process node, a crucial production milestone signifying that the node is now in the early stages of low-volume test manufacturing runs. Intel's Kevin O'Buckley, the Senior Vice President of Foundry Services, made the announcement as Intel nears the full completion of its "five nodes in four years" (5N4Y) plan, which was originally set in motion by ex-CEO Pat Gelsinger as part of the company's quest to retake the semiconductor crown from rival TSMC. The conference also marks the first time that new CEO Lip-Bu Tan has taken to the stage as the new leader of Intel. Intel originally announced its four-year plan in June 2021, and despite canceling high volume manufacturing of the 20A node as a cost-cutting measure, Intel is on the cusp of reaching the finish line with its 18A node. Notably, Intel's 5N4Y plan hinged on the process nodes being available for production rather than actively being in the final high volume manufacturing (HVM) stage. "Risk production, while it sounds scary, is actually an industry standard terminology, and the importance of risk production is we've gotten the technology to a point where we're freezing it," O'Buckley explained. "Our customers have validated that, 'Yep, 18 A is good enough for my product.' And we have to now do the 'risk' part, which is to scale it from making hundreds of units per day to thousands, tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands. So risk production [..] is scaling our manufacturing up and ensuring that we can meet not just the capabilities of the technology, but the capabilities at scale." Risk production is one of many steps on the long road to fielding a new process node and indicates that the company believes the node is nearly ready for HVM. Intel has already produced plenty of 18A test chips/shuttles, typically wherein multiple different designs are prototyped on a single wafer. In contrast, risk production consists of pressing wafers full of a single chip design into low-volume manufacturing as the company tweaks its manufacturing flow and qualifies the node and Process Design Kit (PDK) in real-world production runs. Intel will then scale production up to higher levels in the second half of the year. This step of bringing up a semiconductor process comes after the R&D, design, and prototyping stages of development. There is some 'risk' to risk production, though, as yields and functionality (parametric yields, etc.) can be sub-par as the company refines its manufacturing techniques and optimizes its tooling as it works up the learning curve. As such, customers typically use risk production to manufacture qualification or engineering samples, and the customers aren't given as stringent yield targets/guarantees as they are with nodes fully qualified for HVM. However, some customers are willing to assume those risks to get the payoff of gaining significant time-to-market advantages through early access to the node, which then allows them to adjust and perfect their designs before competitors even begin production. Intel hasn't yet specified if the 18A risk production is for its own Panther Lake processors, which it says will arrive on schedule later this year, or if the production runs are for its external foundry customers. However, Panther Lake, Intel's first 18A processors, will enter mass production later this year. As such, the Panther Lake chips are likely the risk production subject; this schedule generally aligns with our expectations for a typical risk production-to-HVM timeline for Intel. Although Intel pioneered several new technologies on its cancelled 20A node, the 18A (1.8nm) chips will be the first productized chips with both PowerVia backside power delivery and RibbonFET gate-all-around (GAA) transistors. PowerVia provides optimized power routing to improve performance and transistor density, and RibbonFET also provides better transistor density along with faster transistor switching, but in a smaller area. Intel also continues to work on its broader foundry roadmap, which includes the follow-on 14A node, Intel's first to utilize High-NA EUV lithography. Numerous node extensions to other nodes will further expand Intel Foundry Services' portfolio to a broader range of applications. These developments come during turbulence at Intel Foundry as the company adjusts to changing macroeconomic factors. Intel recently delayed the build-out of its Ohio operations until 2030, for example. However, the announcement of 18A risk production mirrors the positive reports that Intel is running its first 18A wafers through its Arizona fabs. We expect to learn much more about Intel's future plans at its Foundry Direct Connect event in late April. Sign in to access your portfolio
