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Intel's 7nm is Broken, Company Announces Delay Until 2022, 2023 (archive)
Intel announced today in its Q2 2020 earnings release that it has now delayed the rollout of its 7nm CPUs by six months relative to its previously-planned release date, undoubtedly resulting in wide-ranging delays to the company's roadmaps. Intel's press release also says that yields for its 7nm process are now twelve months behind the company's internal targets, meaning the company isn't currently on track to produce its 7nm process in an economically viable way. The company now says its 7nm CPUs will not debut on the market until late 2022 or early 2023.
[...] On the earnings call, Intel CEO Bob Swan said the company had identified a "defect mode" in its 7nm process that caused yield degradation issues. As a result, Intel has invested in "contingency plans," which Swan later defined as including using third-party foundries. The company will also use external third-party foundries for its forthcoming 7nm Ponte Vecchio GPUs, the company's first graphics chips. Ponte Vecchio comes as a chiplet-based design, and Swan clarified that production for some of the chiplets (tiles) will be outsourced to third parties. Swan noted the GPUs will come in late 2021 or early 2022, portending a delay beyond the original schedule for a 2021 launch in the exascale Aurora supercomputer.
[...] Intel's first 10nm desktop CPUs, Alder Lake, will arrive in the second half of 2021.
See also: Intel Reports Q2 2020 Earnings: Data Center Sales Fuel Another Record Quarter
Intel 7nm Delayed By 6 Months; Company to Take "Pragmatic" Approach in Using Third-Party Fabs
Intel Roadmap Update: Alder Lake In H2'21, Ice Lake-SP Late This Year
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 25 2020, @11:55AM
I suspect this is 2006 all over again, Intel plays resting hare and lets the AMD tortoise get a little bit ahead for a little while - deflects accusations of monopoly abuse, gets to use other people's R&D insights for free, etc. then opens up the cash hoard and blasts ahead again.
What would be more interesting is if Intel has re-directed their traditional die-shrink R&D into something that might make them competitive with ARM - I doubt that is happening, but it's a much more threatening competition front for them than AMD.
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