Intel Courts TSMC 6nm and 3nm Nodes for Future Xe GPU Generations

[btarunr]

Intel is rumored to be aligning its future-generation Xe GPU development with TSMC's node development cycle, with the company reportedly negotiating with the Taiwanese foundry for 6 nm and 3 nm allocation for its large Xe GPUs. Intel's first Xe discrete GPUs for the market, however, are reportedly built on the company's own 10 nm+ silicon fabrication process.

While Intel's fascination with TSMC 3 nm is understandable, seeking out TSMC's 6 nm node raises eyebrows. Internally referred to as "N6," the 6 nm silicon fabrication node at TSMC is expected to go live either towards the end of 2020 or early 2021, which is when Intel's 10 nm+ node is expected to pick up volume production, beginning with the company's "Tiger Lake" processors. Perhaps a decision has been made internally to ensure that Xe doesn't eat too much into Intel's own foundry capacities meant for processor manufacturing, and to instead outsource Xe manufacturing to third-party foundries like TSMC and Samsung eventually. Way back in April 2019 it was rumored that Intel was evaluating Samsung as a foundry partner for Xe.



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[ratirt]

The 10nm is probably reserved for CPUs and Intel wants to meet the demand so sticking graphics in there won't do any good? If the CPUs turn out to be any good. So graphics as a side project still under development with a lot of improvements needed they want on a different node like TSMC's so they can devote 10nm only for CPUs.

 

[Vayra86]

Expected. Plans. Future.

Is this the bi-weekly round of Intel news that goes up in smoke shortly after? Its getting pretty sad.

 

[mtcn77]

Keke the frog. Intel can do no wrong.#

I want a calendar projected onto the skyline. It should read 'March 10'.

 

[birdie]

which is when Intel's 10 nm+ node is expected to pick up volume production

Just no. Not gonna happen. According to Intel's CFO there will be no volume production based on any variant of the 10nm node.