SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Intel Issues Update on 14nm Shortage, Invests $1B Into Fab Sites (Update)
Intel's CFO and interim CEO Bob Swan penned an open letter to its customers and partners today outlining the steps it is taking to address a persistent and worsening shortage of 14nm processors.
[...] The shortage impacts nearly every aspect of Intel's business, from desktops to laptops, servers and even chipsets, so Intel is making the sound business decision to prioritize high-margin products. The firm has also expanded its testing capacity by diverting some work to a facility in Vietnam.
[...] Intel's statement also assures us that processors built on its 10nm fabrication will arrive in volume in 2019. Intel had previously stated that 10nm processors would be available in 2019, but hadn't made the distinction that they would arrive in volume. That's a positive sign, as the oft-delayed 10nm production is surely a contributing factor to the shortage. Intel also cites the booming desktop PC market, which has outstripped the company's original estimates earlier this year, as a catalyst.
In either case, Intel concedes that "supply is undoubtedly tight, particularly in the entry-level of the PC market" but doesn't provide a firm timeline for when the processors will become fully available. Intel's letter also touts its $1 billion investment in 14nm fabs this year, but half of that capital expenditure was scheduled prior to its first public acknowledgement of the shortage. Given Intel's foresight into the production challenges, the prior $500 million investment was likely in response to the increases in demand and looming production shortfall.
Previously: Intel Migrates New Chipsets to "22nm" Node From "14nm"
Related: Intel's "Tick-Tock" Strategy Stalls, 10nm Chips Delayed
Intel's First 8th Generation Processors Are Just Updated 7th Generation Chips
Intel Delays Mass Production Of 10 nm CPUs To 2019
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday September 28 2018, @11:11PM (6 children)
Which are the best comments, amirite?
I have to wonder if the shortage is because they can't ramp up their smaller processes. The way Intel ramps up smaller processes is by shutting down a factory and updating it. So far it's been a smooth process, but I think they might have encountered a brick wall. Or at least a paper mache wall that will take more time than expected to get yields up in the smaller processes, hence the shortage.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @11:39PM
No, reality is that the NSA asked Intel to delay production a few weeks so thst NSA could finish coding some hot new IME features.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 29 2018, @01:27AM
"How aggravating," said Thatham, as he crossed his arms in disapproval. The spectacle he was overlooking - that he was overhearing - was indeed aggravating, to the point where most ordinary people would call the cops. However, Thatham wanted to find out just what was happening, and so he exited his house and watched.
Two women were screaming at one another outside of Thatham's house. From what the man could gather, they were having some sort of screaming match where whoever could scream the loudest and the longest would win. Thatham had never heard of such a thing before, and he didn't really understand the reason for it. But, then, he observed the situation more closely and began to see something else.
"It's still not clear," Thatham muttered. Closer, closer! He needed to focus on the entirety of the scene in order to grasp it fully. Then, by using the full extent of his observational abilities, he finally understood.
"Ah...!" the man exclaimed. It was all too clear now. Thatham had, at last, spotted the true cause of this so-called "screaming match." The one behind it all - the puppet master, if you will - had been exposed. That mastermind... was a man.
The man was on top of the women, beating, raping, and mutilating them. If one were to look closely, they would notice that the women were naked and that their legs were broken; the latter was probably done so that they couldn't escape. Thatham watched for a while as the man's fists rained down upon the women and snuffed out their lives bit by bit. But, eventually, he became bored and decided to depart.
"So that's all it was," Thatham said to himself, as he slowly walked back into his house. Yes, all along, that "screaming match" had just been a man exercising his rights...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 29 2018, @01:34AM (3 children)
Intel's "10nm" node has been delayed for years...
Intel's "Tick-Tock" Strategy Stalls, 10nm Chips Delayed [soylentnews.org] (July 2015)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday September 29 2018, @08:40AM (2 children)
Don't forget the SoFIA cancellation (the real Atoms) mid circa 2016 and how they never recovered from that.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 29 2018, @01:43PM (1 child)
I do rememeber that, but when you say "they never recovered from that", didn't they not have much smartphone/tablet business in the first place? And Intel chips are at least found in Windows Surface Pro tablets these days.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/05/tablets_arent_coming_back/ [theregister.co.uk]
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/06/2017_tablet_market/ [theregister.co.uk]
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/15/idc_tablets_europe_q2_2018/ [theregister.co.uk]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Saturday September 29 2018, @06:50PM
Market wise, the surface tablets are just a windows laptop form factor since they serve the same use cases. What the pulling back from SoFIA meant wasn't just losing cellular market they never had. It meant they've stopped making another wafer for low-power mobile cores. It sounds inconsequential since those new always connected pcs aren't exactly selling like hot cakes... But what you're missing on is how those SoCs covered a bit more than consumer hardware: Bitcoin ASIC driving is done with ARM since the (rebranded mobile) Atom SoCs cost too much and eat too much power. Bank ATMs and the likes are also seeing ARM stepping in. Onboard computers for vehicles should have been Intel's as well if it wasn't for their lack of good cheap embedded cores. There's also the TV boxes / streamers / NASes that they should have easily owned if they only stayed around longer... It's all seems separate until you realize these are all chips Intel would have made using the same wafer and can't anymore because they canceled that effort and closed down/re-purposed those plants.
It's why I laugh at those "Intel owns 99.9% of the server and desktop markets" statements. They keep pulling out of markets leaving it to their competition to rebrand as embedded or something. Take consoles for instance: How many billions we're talking about here? And didn't it just takeover PC gaming? Wasn't this most of the "shrinking PC market"? But they didn't have the capabilities to produce them so they gave up letting their marketers obscure their dwindling market dominance.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @11:36PM (1 child)
If you spent as much time planning production as you do in creating Intel Management Engine spyware, you wouldn't be in this mess.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday September 28 2018, @11:43PM
This has everything to do with Linus "taking a break" and the fifth-columnist transsexual Chicoms having their way with the kernel while he's out.
Intel's "random" number generators just weren't good enough for Linus, and they took offense to that, so Linus had to go away for a little while. Working in concert, the pink-hairs and Intel then opened up a backdoor bonanza that before the world's top spy agencies could have only dreamed of, and now Intel's hardware/microcode people are in full-swing going wild with those gaping Goatse's. It was already bad enough, but you ain't seen nothin' yet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 29 2018, @04:16AM (1 child)
What's with the "scare quotes" on the sizes? Are you saying that the 14nm and 10nm aren't actually what Intel claims they are? Is it like a friend telling you that they wear a "medium" when you know damn well it's an extra large?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 29 2018, @04:52AM
Those node names don't mean much of anything anymore, and they are defined differently by different companies.
Intel "10nm" is said to be on part with TSMC "7nm".
Moore's Law: Not Dead? Intel Says its 10nm Chips Will Beat Samsung's [soylentnews.org]
Why All Nodes Won’t Work [semiengineering.com]
Silicon Lacks Clear Metrics [eetimes.com]
Technology Node [wikichip.org]
Transistor Options Beyond 3nm [semiengineering.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday September 29 2018, @04:23AM (4 children)
It was not long at all that I read of the desktop PC's tragically untimely demise, because mobile devices.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 29 2018, @06:26AM (2 children)
Maybe it's the result of 2018 finally being the year of the Linux desktop?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 29 2018, @11:46AM
It is for my house
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday September 29 2018, @02:49PM
If by Linux desktop you mean the Gnu/Linux one and not the "My desktop is now just an Android Tablet! Woo Hoo! It's almost as good as a real computer! I don't miss useful technology very much at all!" variety, as is often meant by the phrase, then the year with the strongest adoption so far* was probably 2015, coinciding with the release of Windows 10 as the One True Microsoft Operating System. People had to choose between complete Microsoft control of their digital lives (forced phone-home monitoring, forced updates, forced upgrades, forced installs, forced uninstalls, forced configuration options, shut up citizen we know what's best for
our bottom lineyou), and going with a different operating system.I know people talk about "Wintel" as if the Windows market position and the Intel market position are related, but Windows will run on Not-Intel chips, and of course many Not-Windows operating systems are targeted for Intel chips. I love a good conspiracy theory, but I think the reason for Intel's being slow on the smaller-microparts uptake is that more people got fed up with trying to do actual work on phones and tablets, and went back to real computers, than Intel expected, and they are experiencing a period of short supply while they catch up. Any nefarious, evil things that Intel is currently planning or doing are probably separate issues.
Anyway, many (though bewilderingly, I don't think most) of the people who have the technological knowhow** to do so decided to switch to free software operating systems around that time, the majority of which are based on Linux. (That "many people" is a fraction of a percent of the market. I think Microsoft could program Windows 10 to actually murder people via electrocution at random and their userbase would complain and grumble about it but still fall in line.)
As time marches on, and the user-monitoring and forced-choices become more and more intrusive, there should be a steady trickle*** of migration away from Windows and towards free operating systems, again most of which are based on Linux.
* Unverified statistic based on idle thought. Makes sense to me, though. I know that I personally removed Windows from the last computer in my home office in 2015.
** The ability to post to social media while driving a vehicle with manual transmission in heavy traffic does not constitute "technological knowhow", sorry.
*** Well, actually, analyzing the situation, there should be a mass exodus away from operating systems that have deliberate malicious misfeatures, given that free options exist that respect the user. But those options still need poilish (whether the reader personally admits it or not) to be widely acceptable, for a variety of reasons, and the manpower and creativeness to polish them is apparently still running Mac or Windows. Chicken and egg problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30 2018, @01:07PM
EOL for Windows 7 is January 14, 2020, 15 months from now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 29 2018, @12:01PM
Intel is shit!