Thursday, September 20th 2018
Intel to Move Select Chipset Fabrication Back to 22nm in Wake of 14 nm Silicon Constraints
Things seem to be taking turns to the worse at Intel in accordance to Murphy's law. Not only was the company hit with a multitude of security flaws embedded in their CPUs, which puts their michroarchitecture design chops in jeopardy, but now they also have to contend with silicon fabrication snags. That Intel's 14 nm fabs are being hit with overwhelming demand for their output capacity is already a known quantity, with rising prices of Intel mainstream CPUs and reports of the company outsourcing 14 nm chip production to TSMC in a bid to increase availability - a first since the company became vertically integrated with both design and manufacturing of their own chips.
Now, reports are coming up that Intel will be moving some of its chipsets back to the 22 nm node - namely, the H310 chipset - so as to clear production capability from the 14 nm one. As you might remember, historically, Intel's chipsets have been one silicon manufacturing generation behind their CPUs. Due to the problems in Intel's 10 nm process and constrained output of their 14 nm process, this has now become a necessity again. The new H310 chipset, which had to be architecturally revised for 22 nm (which isn't as easy a thing as one might expect) will debut in the H310C or H310 R2.0 indicator. It will be physically larger (naturally) and incur in a small power efficiency loss as well, and - get this - support Windows 7, likely via asoftware/driver solution. Motherboards with the new chipset are already moving out into the supply chain.
Sources:
ETeknix, Tom's Hardware
75 Comments on Intel to Move Select Chipset Fabrication Back to 22nm in Wake of 14 nm Silicon Constraints
If you compare some CPUs, preferably from different segments, like here:
ark.intel.com/compare/97123,123541,95451,126684
you'll see just how many NULLs there are.
I guess someone might have forgot to fill "Max Memory Bandwidth" for an i5-7500, but there are many boolean fields with missing values. It makes me think about some very badly designed data warehouses...
E.g. Intel SIPP: i7-8700K Yes, i7-7500U No, Xeon 6132 Undecided. ;-)Plausible as well.
At the same time CPUs seem to be in stock so it should not be shortage yet. Anyone have insight into what is going on?
As for how they move to the bigger node, it's largely a case of retooling the fab - new machine settings (unless there's a major change in the process like EUV or single/double/quad-patterning), and new masks.
In this case however, this is likely a "backport" of the chipset dies to an already up and running bigger node, which means porting the HDL from 14nm to 22nm. Much like how you'd port something from Windows to Linux, or x86 to ARM, you port hardware from one node to another (even within a given node family). Once your stuff is ported, you now have the fun job of validating it. Once that's complete and you hit tape-out, that's when mass fabrication starts.
They fail to grasp sarcasm.
No insult intended to all the autistic members, of which there are many.
I have grown accustomed to mark it as such, no matter how obvious it may seem to me.
22nm ... 14nm ... 14nm+ ... 14nm++ ... 22nm ... 22nm+ ... 22nm++ ...
It depends. Autism is a complex condition.More like a statistical certainty.
Intel will make a lot of money doing this step. This not emergency measure this is profit increasing measure.
That story about overwhelming demand is pure nonsense, or at least seems to be (to me).
Given the rather lacking stock on all fronts on Intel inventory, isn't it actually that most of the capacity on their 14nm node is rather used for a) Cascade-Lake, b) the infamous XMM 7560 modem, c) the shiny new 9th Generation Intel Core (9700K, 9900K) and finally d) their chipsets?
- Speaking about Cascade-Lake, it is a stopgap against Naples. Funny thing is, it's destroying yield, like vastly. Problem is, it's urgently needed 'cause of AMD's Naples. So Intel hopefully is and damn sure have to to put every given effort in squeezing as much as possible of those out of production. That's their goal, that's what they try, keeping AMD below 20% marketshare. Anyway, these chips are fucking huge as they're bringing what, like 698mm²?
- Next stop is their ever infamous XMM 7560 modem they were fighting for so hard over years to get the contract for. Their whole respective division has produced insanely hefty debs over several billions (like+20Bn) and they just urgently need that contract. It's extremely important, not only for prestige but Intel as a whole.
- Next core of problem are their 9th Generation of Core series processors which they urgently need to put out. Why? Since they only have a few months left they can even gain any higher profit selling them – until AMD again is very likely going to shit on them with their upcoming Ryzen 3xxx on the new Zen 2 architecture on 7nm. It will be bloody for Intel when they come out as Intel has literally nothing they could compete against with, for years to come.
- Next stomachache are waiting for Intel are their Chipsets, they finally produced on 14nm. They even started to fab them on 14nm not because they just really liked doing so, but since they needed to. They virtually ain't allowed to produce them on their older 22nm-node (not the new one actually) – since those are way to power-hungry on such a big node. Also given laws finally coming into effect which
Did I missed something?→ Here's where the funny part comes in; Huge chips are destroying yields, fast. And as such also the profit.
You need chips for doing so. Turn's out, they can't supply.
Most probablysure enough yield issues. Those are fabbed on 14nm.→ Well, here's where the funny part comes in again; Apple needs about +200 million of such chips. and they need them quick, like yesterday.
You need chips when you intend delivering such numbers. Turn's out, they can't supply (German) them. Those are fabbed on 14nm too.
→ Here's where the funny part comes in; You only going to sell so many chips you can produce in the first place.
So you need huge numbers of chips to sell and gain profit from doing so. Quick, like yesterday! Turns out, they can't supply them. Those are fabbed on 14nm as well.
shouldshall prevent them from producing those on 22nm any longer. Such a law are the California Energy Commission's 2019 regulations – which were adopted already end of '16, now coming into effect. So they ain't really allowed anymore to produce such chips on such a hungry node. Well, technically they are, but they can't really sell them anymore due to given regulations they need to meet now.→ Well, here's where the funny part comes in; Well, … Speaking about shooting your own foot, Intel not only even heavily lobbied for such regulations to become effective in the first place, they even shaped them with such institution – and were rather proud as they finally went through. They literally „trumpeted its support for the rules upon their ratification“ (via TechReport.com). The CEC 2019 imposes strict limitations on the power usage of computers and monitors in idle, sleep, and off modes. That's something they even made by their own hands which finally comes back to bite them. Anyway … You need chipsets you want to sell the processor for (see above; 9th Gen). Turn's out, they can't supply them. Those are fabbed once again on 14nm. Well, no more apparently …
The thing is, their 14nm is overbooked multiple times as of now, they already outsourcing their production, even downgrading parts of it down to 22nm. And by the way, this alone on its own is the single most epic declaration of bankruptcy for a semiconductor company, even more for the absolute monopolist, and a hell of a lot for sure for a company which sees theirselves as not only the most-advanced technology company in the industry but the utmost superior chip engineering company which has ever existed on the planet since the invention of electricity!
Stocks are dying on all fronts
So they outsource, even downsample greater parts of their production to inferior nodes and they still can't even meet the slightest demand. Allegedly just due to the fact that Cascade-Lake is literally eating up their wafers in huge numbers for no greater good. As a result, they can't deliver customer-cpus, they can't deliver any corresponding chipsets and they can't even fulfill their single most critical contract they've ever been granted during the last decade and they, I literally don't know anymore … I'm lost, like honestly.
The whole reason for all of this is the same issue since years, which has produced a multitude of resultant follow-up problems; Their 10nm-process isn't working at all and most products like processors should've had fabbed on their 10nm by now – leaving huge capacities for chipsets, modems or the like. Turned out they wasn't capable of doing so, since years. They've lost pretty much everythiong by now and they doesn't even seem like they actually would acknowledge the very position they're in and have to face in the (near) future.
It actually seems like Intel is somehow torn between panicking and running around headlessly, being just paralyzed from shock while doing nothing and collapsing mentally as well as innerly. What the actual fuck just happened with this great and awesome company?! What on earth happened with such a big and industry-leading giant? I'm literally and actually shocked on what this company has becoming since AMD just dropped a single fucking processor! This can't be for real.
It's like AMD was just walking by, dropping something and since that given day Intel just stands there in awe being totally unable to do anything competent … They just stand in awe before such a tiny company. How could all that just actually happening?! :/
tl;dr: Intel's 14nm production is overbooked by a multitude, can't do any actual shit! -.-
In addition, they look like morons, which they most probably just are – 'cause since a while now they seem to drown from their own Kool-Aid® which they used to enjoy far too long.
Only people hungry of gambling, problem fixing and slow down performance, with Intel security problem and Microsoft Windows Updates problems could think on upgrade now.
I will not be one of people who upgrade and desperately search for problems fixing before mess with silicon and security and 10nm process fix.
Intel back to 22nm, AMD prepare to show 7nm in 2019 CES.
We still live on his glory. Intel's train still drive on same rail.