Intel has announced that it will begin mass production of server chips on the 10nm process this quarter. The company would also soon reveal whether or not it will be outsourcing part of its production.
Exactly what kind of chips Intel will produce is not known. It is also not clear how many chips Intel thinks it can produce. The company only states that it would introduce 50 new processors for desktops this year, 30 of which would be produced on the 10nm process.
Stuck at 14 nanometers
The introduction of 10nm has been a sticking point for Intel for some time now. Currently, the company still produces most of its processors at 14 nanometers. Intel put that process into wide use in 2015 with the Broadwell and then Skylake architectures.
Ice Lake
The company has stuck with Skylake for years; subsequent generations were little more than Skylake processors with higher clock speeds and more cores. In 2019, the company finally introduced the first laptop processors based on Ice Lake, with a new architecture and a smaller process on 10nm. However, for desktops and servers, the company has not yet introduced new processors with this new architecture, while competitor AMD is quickly gaining market share with its Zen architecture.
7 and 5 nanometers
Other chip manufacturers, such as TSMC and Samsung, have produced smaller chips at 7 and even 5 nanometers. This has led some shareholders to suggest that Intel move part of its chip production to a third party. According to Reuters, Intel will share on 21 January whether it will do so with its 2023 products.
12 minutes ago
