Intel 10nm Production Update: Systems on Shelves For Holiday 2019
by Anton Shilov on July 26, 2018 8:50 PM EST
Earlier this year Intel confirmed that it would delay mass production of 10nm CPUs to 2019 due to issues with yields, but did not elaborate on when in 2019 that would be. Late on Thursday Intel finally made a long-awaited clarification: the first systems powered by 10nm CPUs will hit store shelves in the second half of 2019. But there is a catch: 14nm products will still continue to play a big role next year.
Intel is set to start mass production of processors using its 10nm process technology in 2019, and while the company isn't explicitly saying when mass production will begin, it's sounding like that will be in the Q2/Q3 time frame. This being based off of what Intel is saying, which is that they expect to have PCs based on these chips to arrive during the 2019 holiday shopping season. Given the kind of lead-time required to get complete OEM systems on to store shelves, this would mean that mass production on chips needs to start 3 to 6 months sooner than that.
As for said finished systems, what's typically considered the holiday shopping season starts in October or early November. So systems based on Intel’s 10nm CPUs would finally be available in mass quantities starting in Q4 of 2019. Consequently, for more three quarters of next year Intel will continue to rely almost entirely on its products made using its various 14nm process technologies.
It remains to be seen how much time it will take Intel to ramp up production of its 10nm CPUs and when the volume crossover between 14nm and 10nm chips occurs. At present, Intel seems to be optimistic about what it has today and will have tomorrow — a variety of 14nm products. In fact, there is a lot of room for growth here: shipments of Intel’s Xeon Scalable processors accounted for a little less than 50% of Intel’s datacenter revenue in the most recent quarter, so the company will certainly continue to ramp up shipments of these products for many quarters to come, increasing its ASPs and revenue. Keep in mind that Intel’s upcoming Cascade Lake-SP platform will bring support for 3D XPoint-based Optane DC Persistent Memory DIMMs, which will bring in huge earnings opportunities to the company.
Speaking of datacenter products. Murthy Renduchintala, Intel’s chief engineering officer, promised that 10nm “datacenter products” will follow “shortly after” availability of client systems running 10nm CPUs in the late 2019. He did not give any exact timeframes, but stressed that its next-gen Xeon will follow its next-gen client parts quicker usually. Essentially, Intel confirmed this week’s report claiming that the codenamed Ice Lake-SP CPUs may hit the market in Q3 or Q4 of 2020.
Note: Image of a wafer is for illustrative purposes only.
Related Reading:
- Intel Delays Mass Production of 10nm CPUs to 2019
- Intel’s Xeon Scalable Roadmap Leaks: Cooper Lake-SP, Ice Lake-SP Due in 2020
- First 10nm Cannon Lake Laptop Spotted Online: Lenovo Ideapad 330 for $449
- Intel Discloses Plans to Spend $5 Billion on Fab 28 Expansion in Israel
- Intel's 10nm Briefly Appears: Dual Core Cannon Lake in Official Documents
- Intel Mentions 10nm, Briefly
- Intel Displays 10nm Wafer, Commits to 10nm ‘Falcon Mesa’ FPGAs
Source: Intel
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smilingcrow - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
The same question passed through my mind. Seems a long way off unless that is due to needing to wait for equipment to be delivered which has a long lead time as others have speculated.James5mith - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
When are we going to see an AMD Ryzen CPU with on-package/on-die royalty free Thunderbolt 3? That's what I'm wanting to see.After the 2017 announcement that Intel was going to offer up TB3 royalty free and move the controller on-die for future Intel CPUs, I was hoping for a quicker adoption of the technology by AMD and Intel for that matter.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-integrates...
OFelix - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
Me too!Although I don't have a burning need for TB, I'd like to have it in my next system which is currently preventing me moving to AMD.
Spunjji - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
I wouldn't have thought we'd see that any time soon. Zen 2 has taped out and Zen 3 is most of the way through its design process, too. It would make way more sense for them to integrate it into the chipset than to their CPU in the near-term.Icehawk - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
TB of all flavors reminds me of FW, it may be good but adoption was verrrry low (basically just Apple and some camcorders). Hell I can’t get my work to stop buying monitors with VGA inputs.CBeddoe - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
Intel seams to be at least a full year or more behind AMD in the server space. Parts on shelves probably means low core count consumer chips with enterprise products to follow... someday.AMD is launching 7nm EPYC in early 2019, they already started sampling them.
AMD is doubling core counts from 32 to 64 (and can probably keep turning this knob pretty easily)
Rumors are 10-15% IPC Gains, with TSMC boasting significant power efficiency gains, and clock speed increases.
Intel is still selling or trying to sell ultra expensive monolythic dies in the server space. These chips are much more expensive to manufacture and achieve good yields with. Intel is significantly more impacted by the meltdown and spectre exploits that just seem to keep coming and their pathes have shown 10-25% performance hits in datacenters.
AMD inovated significantly with Zen and have their foot planted solidly on the gas and their current tragectory is HUGE trouble for Intel. I hope Intel's new CEO can turn things around quickly to keep the competition up because it is great for advancing technology and great for consumers.
At my place of work 3rd and 4th gen Intel systems are being replaced with AMD as needed. You just can't beat the current value in AM4 and future upgradability.
sa666666 - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
Where is our resident Intel shill HStewart now that Intel is not king of the 10nm hill anymore. His silence in thread speaks volumes.But of course he's in the other AMD thread stating that the 20% increase in AMD stock is nothing, and the drop in Intel stock has nothing to do with AMD :)
Maxiking - Saturday, July 28, 2018 - link
7nm used by AMD is worse than 10nm by Intel.I really don't know what are you trying to imply here, but AMD is not king of anything either, so back to your cave.
Fulljack - Sunday, July 29, 2018 - link
lol that's not true. Samsung and TSMC's 7nm are competitive against Intel's 10nm. if you're comparing the MTr/mm², then Intel is slightly worse. not to mention that those two fabs has already sampling their 7nm products, while Intel still couldn't get their 10nm working.Intel's the reigning king of manufacturing process? not anymore, bud.
iwod - Saturday, July 28, 2018 - link
I know from people inside what those 10nm problem is, and they are not a big as the media have spin it, they will have 10nm in a few months time. - Said by someoneSome of the 10nm problem are so big, but Intel are now planning to skip 10nm altogether and go to 7nm. - Said by someone.
Cannonlake has been launched, and we are going straight to Icelake in 2019, - said by someone.
I wonder where those people are?