Intel's Future Chips: News, Rumours & Reviews

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Well, at least we now know how it stacks up

 

[de5_Roy]

Intel Demonstrates Industry’s First Fully Patterned 450mm Wafer: Photos.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20130118174430_Intel_Demonstrates_Industry_s_First_Fully_Patterned_450mm_Wafer_Photos.html
Intel to Start Building First Dedicated 450mm Fab This Year.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20130118165856_Intel_to_Start_Building_First_Dedicated_450mm_Fab_This_Year.html
Intel on Track to Start Making 14nm “Broadwell” Chips in 2013.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20130118154034_Intel_on_Track_to_Start_Making_14nm_Broadwell_Chips_in_2013.html

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Thats one huge wafer
Glad to see it starting to happen

 

[mayankleoboy1]

Bigger wafers = more profit for Chip makers/designers.
I really doubt consumers will get cheaper products because of this reason.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

S|A has been saying that Apple is very capable of buying all chips production of TSMC, use whatever they can, and mete out the rest to whoever they want (QC, NV,AMD), at whatever the price.
Say one thing for Apple, say they are thorough.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

This also somewhat helps offset the higher costs of the newer smaller harder to do nodes

 

[mayankleoboy1]

But the move itself to 450mm has cost fukcing huge amounts, in direct investments, takeovers, and partnerships. What would the semiconductor industry do without Intel leading innovation and forcing others too ?

AFAIK, Intel will start producing 450mm this year, prolly in late Q3.So would those chips be production ready, or more of a "production test chips" ?

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

This is a collaboration, with Intel spearheading it.
Each collaborator makes some off of this as well, including, especially, the tool makers.
Intel gets at least a full years lead here as well, maybe more
http://www.icknowledge.com/news/Forecasting%20the%20450mm%20Ramp%20Up.pdf
Not sure how fast all fabs will ramp.
TSMC says 2018, which may include mature ramp dates, not sure.

 

[Chad Boga]

But the move itself to 450mm has cost fukcing huge amounts, in direct investments, takeovers, and partnerships. What would the semiconductor industry do without Intel leading innovation and forcing others too ?

AFAIK, Intel will start producing 450mm this year, prolly in late Q3.So would those chips be production ready, or more of a "production test chips" ?

Don't think the average punter will get their hands on a CPU made on a 450mm wafer till 2016, it will probably be on the 10nm process.


EDIT : Actually, thinking about this a bit more, Intel will probably do a run of 14nm 450mm wafers first, as by then, 14nm will be a known quantity and thus well suited to trying out on this new wafer size. It would also make for some very cheap and plentiful Atom SoC's to target various sectors of the Smartphone market. This might mean they would come out in 2015.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

Dunno why, but Wintel dont believe in "very cheap".

Edit : not to be sarcastic or anything, Intel already has plentiful SoC's. Its just that nobody wants to buy them....

 

[Cazalan]

S|A has been saying that Apple is very capable of buying all chips production of TSMC, use whatever they can, and mete out the rest to whoever they want (QC, NV,AMD), at whatever the price.
Say one thing for Apple, say they are thorough.

Yep the Samsung/Apple battle is causing major collateral damage. That's why neither AMD/NV are talking about 20nm anything yet. Even for their 2014 parts its 28nm.

Meanwhile Intel will be at 14nm.

 

[de5_Roy]

Haswell H line goes up to 57W
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30191-haswell-h-line-goes-up-to-57w
Intel Core "Haswell" Processor Launch Sync'd with Computex
http://www.techpowerup.com/179089/Intel-Core-quot-Haswell-quot-Processor-Launch-Sync-d-with-Computex.html
couldn't wait and bought a 3570k.

 

[montosaurous]

Since this is a future chip thread, who thinks Intel is going to go BGA with Broadwell?

 

[mayankleoboy1]

Intel is going BGA with Broadwell for majority of the product lines.
Only 1 DT line will have an LGA package, prolly the high end 'K' parts. So technically, they "are committed to the LGA form factor".

 

[de5_Roy]

Cheapest $699+ Ultrabook 2.0 needs touchscreen
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30205-cheapest-$699%20-ultrabook-20-needs-touchscreen

 

[getochkn]

4 cores, new socket means new MB's, nothing new with Intel.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Intel-Haswell-Ivy-Bridge-E-CPU,20590.html

 

[Blandge]

Bigger wafers = more profit for Chip makers/designers.
I really doubt consumers will get cheaper products because of this reason.

450mm is essential in order to move below 10nm. Without such reduction in fab equipment and per-die cost, it would be impossible to sustain a shrink every 2 years (and still make money). This is what Intel is banking on. The move to 450mm wafers is going to cost upwards of 6-10B (on top of the 11B/yr Intel spends on CapEX) over the next 5 years or so. Very few other foundries will be able to make this move. TSMC, Samsung, and probably IBM. We're going to see the number of leading node foundries drop off to maybe 3-4 (including Intel) after the 450mm shift.

But the move itself to 450mm has cost fukcing huge amounts, in direct investments, takeovers, and partnerships. What would the semiconductor industry do without Intel leading innovation and forcing others too ?

AFAIK, Intel will start producing 450mm this year, prolly in late Q3.So would those chips be production ready, or more of a "production test chips" ?

..

Don't think the average punter will get their hands on a CPU made on a 450mm wafer till 2016, it will probably be on the 10nm process.


EDIT : Actually, thinking about this a bit more, Intel will probably do a run of 14nm 450mm wafers first, as by then, 14nm will be a known quantity and thus well suited to trying out on this new wafer size. It would also make for some very cheap and plentiful Atom SoC's to target various sectors of the Smartphone market. This might mean they would come out in 2015.

We won't see 450mm on a high volume node until 2018.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

You might include GF here as well, especially if IBM goes as well, the monies there, but we will have to wait on the commitment

 

[mayankleoboy1]

Samsung is the other company which has the money to spend on 450mm wafers.

 

[gamerk316]

And in other news: Intel quits the motherboard market:

http://www.hardocp.com/news/2013/01/22/intel_discontinuing_branded_desktop_motherboard_production

 

[mayankleoboy1]

Did they even have a market ?

 

[Blandge]

Did they even have a market ?

Apparently not a very good one.

 

[Cazalan]

With the initial BGA only rumors people feared that Intel would take over the motherboard market and put the Asus/Gigabytes/etc out of business. That's clearly not the case.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

:lol: yes i remember.

 

[de5_Roy]

intel mobos were focused on stability rather than performance or features. the ones i know of lasted pretty long too. problem is - the prices are too high and asus, gb, asrock all offer better.. of everything.