Electronics Weekly Electronics Design & Components Tech News
‘When you get behind it takes 10 years to catch up,“ replied Malcolm Penn CEO of Future Horizons, “you’re constantly chasing a moving target.“ Intel is trying to do it in four years.
“Technically they should be able to do it if they could get the right people,“ added Penn “but engineers like to work for successful companies They do not want to worry about whether they’ll still have a job in a year or two.”
Penn pointed out Intel took control of the company out of the hands of the engineers and that was when the rot set in terms of its process capability. He reckoned that Intel is now about a year behind TSMC in process cpability.
TSMC has been running it’s 3nm process for a year while Intel’s best process in volume production is Intel 4 at Leixlip.
Intel 3 and TSMC N3E are the final finfet generations for both companies and that is when a chance opens for Intel to catch up as the first GAA processes from both companies go into production.
Intel has a more advanced GAA process than TSMC’s GAA process and Intel’s is planned for next year, but it is not known whether it will be ready for mass production next year. According to Broadcom it is not ready yet.
