Intel Cancels 20A. Now Why Would They Go & Do That?
bridging from Intel 20A earlier than we’d planned. Seriously?
At the Citi Global Technology Conference held on September 4, Intel CFO David Zinsner dropped a bombshell when he casually mentioned that the company was “going to kind of skip over productizing 20A”. He further noted that “ 20A was a nice to have and relatively expensive so we figure we'll save about a half a billion dollars just from that activity”
Intel’s 20A process node was planned to be used to manufacture Intel’s upcoming Arrow Lake processors later this year. You are probably thinking, that’s great. I bet they will manufacture Arrow Lake on their 18A process instead. After all Mr Gelsinger proudly told us last week that it now has a defect density of <0.4
I'm happy to update the audience that for this process (he’s referring here to 18A) we're now below 0.4 defect density. This is now a healthy process that we're looking forward to starting production of wafers with Panther Lake before the end of the year so we're on track to deliver that.
But alas, you would be wrong if this is what you thought. Intel has just issued a press release telling us something very different. Let’s dig in….
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