News Ericsson processors built on 'Intel 4' process node beat Meteor Lake to market

[Admin]

Ericsson is perhaps the biggest high-profile user of Intel's IFS business and has launched its first products that use chips manufactured on the Intel 4 node, beating even Intel's own Meteor Lake CPUs to market.

Ericsson processors built on 'Intel 4' process node beat Meteor Lake to market : Read more

 

[Order 66]

what a surprise, a company beat intel to market. at least the current 10nm+++ isn't as bad as the 14nm+ (I don't remember how many generations 14nm spanned) of yesteryear.

 

[JTWrenn]

Beat to market? They are two totally different markets. This is like comparing the next gen wifi to next gen desktops. It doesn't make any sense.

In short there was no race, and they are much less complicated chips so it makes sense. If anything Intel used Ericsson as a test bed to work out their Intel 4 node.

 

[Order 66]

Beat to market? They are two totally different markets. This is like comparing the next gen wifi to next gen desktops. It doesn't make any sense.

In short there was no race, and they are much less complicated chips so it makes sense. If anything Intel used Ericsson as a test bed to work out their Intel 4 node.

good point, I just thought it was funny that Meteor Lake has been known for what seems like forever and it has yet to launch. I also just thought that Intel would have been the first to launch anything using their technology.

 

[bit_user]

what a surprise, a company beat intel to market.

They don't need the same amount of production volume.

Also, when they say they have it "on the market", I'll bet it just means they're shipping it to their customers (i.e. makers of 5G routers & base stations). Intel has been shipping Meteor Lake to its customers (i.e. system-builders) for many months, already. On that basis, it's a flawed comparison.

at least the current 10nm+++

Intel 4 is what they used to call 7 nm. I think it's a EUV node, whereas Intel 7 (formerly 10 nm) is DUV.

 

[Order 66]

Intel 4 is what they used to call 7 nm. I think it's a EUV node, whereas Intel 7 (formerly 10 nm) is DUV.

This intel 4 and 7 is so confusing trying to figure out what the nanometer equivalent is.

 

[bit_user]

BTW, the first public Intel 4 chip was supposedly Horse Creek - a quad-core RISC-V SoC that was meant to ship on SiFive's HiFive Pro P550 dev boards:

SiFive HiFive Pro P550 dev board coming this summer with Intel "Horse Creek" RISC-V chip - Liliputing

SiFive HiFive Pro P550 dev board coming this summer with Intel "Horse Creek" RISC-V chip

liliputing.com

...still not shipping, though. What a disappointment.

 

[DavidC1]

This intel 4 and 7 is so confusing trying to figure out what the nanometer equivalent is.

It don't matter. Samsung, TSMC doesn't use the nm naming scheme anyway. They deviated from the nm naming since "20nm".

That's why TSMC calls it N3 not 3nm, and Samsung uses whatever nonsense naming they use.

 

[kjfatl]

It reached the point that Intel was the only player using NM so they gave up and began using a numbering scheme similar to that used by TMSC and the other major players in the market.

This is little different that Comcast advertising "This is the next generation 10G Network. Only from Xfinity"

 

[dimar]

I'd like someone to finally make power efficient 10GbE+ ethernet switches. (or at least 5GbE)

 

[kjfatl]

You don't need them with Comcast. Their 10G network maxes out at about 1.2G.
It's their 10th Generation of Cable modems, or something like that.
The intent from Comcast is to deceive the uninformed customer, just like TSMC's N3 moniker was to make you think they were using a 3nm process for their 7nm silicon.

 

[JayNor]

Intel announced their Loihi-2 Neuromorphic chip on Intel-4 in 2021. Did they ever ship any?

 

[thestryker]

This intel 4 and 7 is so confusing trying to figure out what the nanometer equivalent is.

There is no actual nanometer equivalent, and hasn't been since Intel launched 22nm because of FinFET. I believe most of the rest of the market jumped on that bandwagon at their "16nm" nodes. Sadly everyone but Intel has been shady with their naming conventions which is why you see the 14nm+++++++++++++ jokes. Samsung's 8nm that nvidia used for Ampere is just a refinement of their prior 10nm process as an example.

Intel's 10nm is relatively straightforward: the one they don't talk about CNL, then 10nm ICL, 10nm SuperFin TGL, and what would have been 10nm Enhanced SuperFin which was turned into Intel 7.

What would have been Intel 7nm is now Intel 4, and Intel 3 is a refinement of that. What would have been Intel 5nm is now Intel 20A with Intel 18A being the refinement. This is probably inspired by the way TSMC has done N7/N6 and N5/N4. Realistically these names are all bs and are intended to tell customers "smaller number better".

 

[George³]

nex gen 5G

Why not directly 6G?

 

[bit_user]

I'd like someone to finally make power efficient 10GbE+ ethernet switches. (or at least 5GbE)

You can find fanless switches with 4x 2.5 Gbps ports + 2x 10 Gbps. It's probably not long until we get fanless 5x 10 Gbps switches, but it seems the current generation of chips isn't quite there, yet.

 

[jp7189]

You can find fanless switches with 4x 2.5 Gbps ports + 2x 10 Gbps. It's probably not long until we get fanless 5x 10 Gbps switches, but it seems the current generation of chips isn't quite there, yet.

The issue is the power required by the copper transcievers, not so much the controller. 10G fiber switches use a fraction of the power of 10G copper switches.

 

[Shirley Marquez]

what a surprise, a company beat intel to market. at least the current 10nm+++ isn't as bad as the 14nm+ (I don't remember how many generations 14nm spanned) of yesteryear.

It's a mild surprise that an outside company using Intel 4 came to market before any of Intel's own chips using the process. But Ericsson may have been able to use the new process at an earlier stage of its ramp-up; Intel can't yet make enough chips to fill the likely demand for Meteor Lake, but they can make enough for the Ericsson product.

 

[bit_user]

It's a mild surprise that an outside company using Intel 4 came to market before any of Intel's own chips using the process.

As I said before, that's comparing apples and oranges. Intel has been shipping Meteor Lake to OEMs for months. Ericson is just beginning to ship their chips to companies that make networking gear.

In other words, the definition of "come to market" is different. Intel's launch date is when their OEMs are allowed to launch systems based on the new CPU, whereas Ericson's definition is just that they have begun their production runs.

 

[DavidC1]

Intel announced their Loihi-2 Neuromorphic chip on Intel-4 in 2021. Did they ever ship any?

Loihi is not at all comparable. They have shipped to various labs, and that's all it's useful for.

The Ericsson chip will be far higher volume and use way more wafers. The die doesn't seem to be small at all based on the shots of the package. Actually I'd call this the first proper Intel foundry win, because previous attempts were extremely low volume wins like from Achronix and the like.

This is result of the change brought in by Gelsinger's management.