Intel Reportedly Delays TSMC 3nm Orders for 15th Gen Arrow Lake CPUs
Intel Reportedly Delays TSMC 3nm Orders for 15th Gen Arrow Lake CPUs:
In late January, we reported that Intel secured a leading "cloud, edge, and data center solutions provider" that will use its Intel 3 node. Intel is bolstering its efforts to sign lucrative contracts for its Intel Foundry Services arm, a lynchpin in CEO Pat Gelsinger's efforts to increase revenue.
But while Intel produces most of its chips (and produces chips for other vendors), it also has contracts with competitors like Taiwan Semiconductor Corporation (TSMC) to produce chips for its Arc discrete GPU family. To that end, DigiTimes reports that Intel's collaboration with TSMC on products using the latter's 3nm node has hit a slight snag.
Previous reports indicated that Intel's 15th generation disaggregated multi-tile/multi-chiplet Arrow Lake processors, which will purportedly use TSMC 3nm for the GPU tile, would launch in Q3 2024. Now, it's reported that Intel is delaying orders with TSMC until Q4 2024. So if this report is accurate, the first Arrow Lake processor will trickle in late Q4 2024 into Q1 2025.
However, Arrow Lake is roughly two years away, so we're quibbling about a couple of months for a product two generations out. Leading up to Arrow Lake, Intel will allegedly launch Raptor Lake-S desktop processors later this year with enhanced performance for enthusiasts and workstation markets. Raptor Lake-S will be followed by the 14th generation Meteor Lake family later this year. "On Intel 4, we are ready today for manufacturing and we look forward to the MTL (Meteor Lake) ramp in the second half of the year," said Gelsinger during Intel's Q4 2022 earnings call.
Apple Has Procured TSMC's Entire First Run of 3nm Chips
Apple Has Procured TSMC's Entire First Run of 3nm Chips:
Apple became the first company in history with a $3 trillion dollar market cap in 2022. As for Intel, well, let's just be charitable and say it's having a bit of a rough ride lately. Given these circumstances, it's not a huge surprise to learn Apple has snatched up all of TSMC's first generation 3nm wafer capacity.
[...] Macrumors states that Apple will also be the first customer for N3E later this year. Intel was supposedly going to join Apple at the N3 table by purchasing GPU tiles for its upcoming Meteor Lake CPUs. However, delays might have forced it to go with N4 instead. With Apple's purchase, it looks like Intel will be left out in the cold for the first run of N3. Since N3E is supposed to be coming online around the time Meteor Lake launches, we won't be surprised to see its iGPU be an N4 product.
The purchase by Apple is exciting for the industry, as 3nm promises to be a blockbuster node for TSMC. In fact, TSMC is so confident that it raised prices for Apple, and the company reportedly buckled in negotiations over it. Despite the now-finalized agreement, we won't see the first 3nm chips for another six months, at least.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday February 24, @04:40PM
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-ceo-fires-back-at-3nm-delay-rumors [tomshardware.com]
They denied it but who knows. Apple usually gets first before optimizations.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by richtopia on Friday February 24, @04:54PM
I'm lazy. If someone else (Apple) wants to go through the miserable process of evaluating and troubleshooting the risk production coming off of the line, please enjoy. As long as AMD/Nvidia is not receiving that initial 3nm production, Intel isn't losing ground to a real competitor.
(Score: 1) by Zoot on Saturday February 25, @03:04AM
I hope they get their new Arizona fabs working right soon because that Kari Lake processor can't even count!