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“One of the benefits of our early success on Intel 18A is that it enables us to shift engineering resources from Intel 20A earlier than expected” The Tom’s art

“One of the benefits of our early success on Intel 18A is that it enables us to shift engineering resources from Intel 20A earlier than expected” The Tom’s article said it would outsource production to TSMC. Maybe in the short term?

adrian_b 2y ago
Intel has already outsourced to TSMC the fabrication of most laptop CPUs and desktop CPUs for the year 2024/2025 (i.e. Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake S are made completely by TSMC, while Meteor Lake is made mostly by TSMC, with only one tile made by Intel). The only remaining product that was planned to use the 20A process was Arrow Lake H for laptops, to be launched in early 2025. This announcement implies that the Arrow Lake H CPU tile, the only part of it made by Intel, will be ported to the TSMC process, so that Arrow Lake H will be completely made by TSMC, exactly like the desktop Arrow Lake S, which will be launched next month. For the year 2024/2025, Intel has retained only the fabrication of the server Xeon CPUs and of the older CPU models that are still in production. The plan with the 18A Intel CMOS process is that will be used not only for the 2025/2026 server CPUs, but also for the 2025/2026 laptop CPUs (Panther Lake), returning the fabrication of the latter to Intel. According to the current rumors, the Intel desktop CPUs after next month will be produced at TSMC at least until 2026.
- DebtDeflation 2y ago
  Meteor Lake: - Base Tile -> Intel 16 - Compute Tile -> Intel 4 - SOC Tile -> TSMC N6 - I/O Extender Tile -> TSMC N6 - Graphics Tile -> TSMC N5 Lunar Lake: - Base Tile -> Intel 16 - Compute Tile -> TSMC N3B - Platform Controller Tile -> TSMC N6 The article makes it sound like for Arrow Lake, EVERYTHING, including the Base Tile, will be made by TSMC, and then Intel will just glue everything together into the CPU package.
  - adrian_b 2y ago
    The base tile is only equivalent with a miniaturized PCB that makes the connections between the other tiles. Its fabrication is much simpler than that of the other tiles and it belongs to the packaging and testing operations, which are done by Intel itself. It does not belong to the fabrication of the active parts of the CPU SoC. The Base Tile could have been fabricated by any from more than a dozen of IC manufacturers, while the active tiles are beyond the capabilities of any company besides TSMC, Samsung and Intel. The Base Tile is just "glue" for the tiles that contain the active devices.

adrian_b 2y ago

Intel has already outsourced to TSMC the fabrication of most laptop CPUs and desktop CPUs for the year 2024/2025 (i.e. Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake S are made completely by TSMC, while Meteor Lake is made mostly by TSMC, with only one tile made by Intel). The only remaining product that was planned to use the 20A process was Arrow Lake H for laptops, to be launched in early 2025. This announcement implies that the Arrow Lake H CPU tile, the only part of it made by Intel, will be ported to the TSMC process, so that Arrow Lake H will be completely made by TSMC, exactly like the desktop Arrow Lake S, which will be launched next month. For the year 2024/2025, Intel has retained only the fabrication of the server Xeon CPUs and of the older CPU models that are still in production. The plan with the 18A Intel CMOS process is that will be used not only for the 2025/2026 server CPUs, but also for the 2025/2026 laptop CPUs (Panther Lake), returning the fabrication of the latter to Intel. According to the current rumors, the Intel desktop CPUs after next month will be produced at TSMC at least until 2026.

DebtDeflation 2y ago
Meteor Lake: - Base Tile -> Intel 16 - Compute Tile -> Intel 4 - SOC Tile -> TSMC N6 - I/O Extender Tile -> TSMC N6 - Graphics Tile -> TSMC N5 Lunar Lake: - Base Tile -> Intel 16 - Compute Tile -> TSMC N3B - Platform Controller Tile -> TSMC N6 The article makes it sound like for Arrow Lake, EVERYTHING, including the Base Tile, will be made by TSMC, and then Intel will just glue everything together into the CPU package.
- adrian_b 2y ago
  The base tile is only equivalent with a miniaturized PCB that makes the connections between the other tiles. Its fabrication is much simpler than that of the other tiles and it belongs to the packaging and testing operations, which are done by Intel itself. It does not belong to the fabrication of the active parts of the CPU SoC. The Base Tile could have been fabricated by any from more than a dozen of IC manufacturers, while the active tiles are beyond the capabilities of any company besides TSMC, Samsung and Intel. The Base Tile is just "glue" for the tiles that contain the active devices.