Intel is finally getting ready to launch its first chips manufactured on a 10nm process. The company had planned to move to 10nm in 2016, but a series of setbacks have prevented that from happening.
That led to Intel basically blowing up its usual “tick tock” release schedule and sticking with 14nm for the past four chip generations, although each new model has had some enhancements and optimizations.
But as 2017 draws to a close, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich says the company is “on track to ship our first low-volume 10-nanometer part by the end of the year.”
Speaking during the company’s most recent earnings call, Krzanich said Intel plans to ramp up production in the first half of 2018, with “high volume and system availability in the second half of 2018.
In other words, the first 10nm chips from Intel are coming this year. But the processors, which are code-named “Cannon Lake,” will only be available in limited quantities and you may have to wait until mid-2018 at the soonest to walk into a store and by a PC powered by one of the new processors.
Oddly, Intel is expected to brand the chips as part of the 8th-gen Intel Core processor family, which already includes 14nm Kaby Lake Refresh chips for laptops and Coffee Lake processors for desktops.
It’s going to get even tougher to tell one Intel chip apart from another just by glancing at the name. There are usually clues in the model number, but you kind of need a decoder ring to decipher all the numbers and letters.
I suspect folks who pay attention to this kind of thing will just continue referring to the new chip as Kaby Lake R, Coffee Lake, and Cannon Lake rather than lumping them together under the clunky phrase “8th gen Intel Core.”
I feel like Intel is running out of ideas to compromise and save face after promising their shareholders the 10nm wonders for 20XX – it’s clearly not working according to plan, they have already delayed so many times, and now we’re getting some sort of marketing-induced smokescreen to confuse everybody as to which chip has which die size.
Perhaps it’s time to get rid of Krzanich, not only did his “cancel everything and go full IoT” strategy fail (wasting millions and costing thousands of jobs along the way), but the on-going 10nm chip failure is getting too tough to swallow.
classic paper launch…but I will say this about these SOB`s it will be real 10nm unlike what is on the market now!
Looks like it will be similar to 14nm. They will release their highest margin chips that have small die size… soc low power mobile. It’s going to have 15% better battery life and 5% higher performance. I can’t wait to get my hands on one.
It will end up being a paper launch, however, do note that Samsung’s latest +10nm fabrication is in full-production now with the first product being the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC.
And TSMC will leap-frog both of them in the next year(s) with their competitive 10nm and 7nm wafers, as their fabrication is looking very promising.
This means Intel may be relegated to 3rd-place in 2018. Strange, as they had been in first-place for so long, but I guess that’s what happens when you get complacent and have little in the way of competitors (ahem AMD).
Do you see the empty red circle on the graph? That’s the Samsung 10nm. Someone has to be truly misguided by marketing bla-bla to call it 10 nm. Oh, the whole word does it? Well, they have must have a really good marketing department. 🙂
I wasn’t talking about Samsung’s 10nm LPE, I was talking about Samsung’s 10nm LPP… the one they’re making in 2018.
Besides, its just an Intel graph. I’ve seen drawings from 5 year olds that’s more credible than this.
Intel has shifted from being first (by a wide-stretch) to being at a competitive third.
That’s what a lot of profits and complacency does to technology.
its very simple, qualcomm said that their 10nm chip, aka 835, will be out with 3MB of cache and it will play win10 by the end of this year, so Intel need to do a little move by the end of the year so thier shares will not fall- to give hope to the shares holders
and now when AMD is coming with new line of chips for laptops and desktops, Intel finally moving their ass
honestly, they’re not only moving their ass, they’re putting on mini skirts and high heels it’s a bit sad.
That’s assuming Intel doesn’t sue Qualcomm for patent infringement first.
They will sue, but I doubt they will win.
Instead, they’ll position Qualcomm badly forcing them to a cross-licencing deal that benefits Intel.
Possibly leading to Windows 10 phones, tablets, and laptops with 4G-LTE nanoSIM Trays. And a commission from all Snapdragon sold phones.
In Intel talk this means samples for qualification this year , maybe some 5W dual cores in H1 and real volume in H2.
So don’t expect retail this year and keep in mind that July might be in H2 but so is Nov even if there are no delays.
You don’t believe me, go back to the quarters before 14nm and you’ll see how they mask delays.
Well, there are already 2W x86-64 chips from Intel (Intel Atom). IDK, I have ARM and MIPS powered PCs, and they’re not multipurpose as x86-64 powered ones.