Intel Touts Incredible Gains for Its Critical Intel 18A Process
The key to Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) turnaround is the Intel 18A manufacturing process, the final process in the company's original five-nodes-in-four-years plan. Intel will not only make Intel 18A available to foundry customers, but it will also use the process for many of its own chips, including Panther Lake for PCs and Clearwater Forest for servers. Intel 18A has the potential to entirely close the performance and efficiency gap with foundry leader TSMC.While the turmoil at Intel over the past year, which included the surprise "retirement" of former CEO Pat Gelsinger, has put a cloud of uncertainty over Intel's foundry ambitions, the company provided some new details on the Intel 18A process at the 2025 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits. The figures from the company paint a rosy picture of Intel 18A's future.Intel 18A features two key technologies: Gate-all-around (GAA) transistors and backside power delivery. The new GAA transistor architecture represents the biggest change Intel has made since the FinFET architecture was introduced in 2011. The Intel 3 process, which Intel uses for its current lineup of server CPUs, was the final process to use FinFET transistors.Continue reading
The key to Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) turnaround is the Intel 18A manufacturing process, the final process in the company's original five-nodes-in-four-years plan. Intel will not only make Intel 18A available to foundry customers, but it will also use the process for many of its own chips, including Panther Lake for PCs and Clearwater Forest for servers. Intel 18A has the potential to entirely close the performance and efficiency gap with foundry leader TSMC.
While the turmoil at Intel over the past year, which included the surprise "retirement" of former CEO Pat Gelsinger, has put a cloud of uncertainty over Intel's foundry ambitions, the company provided some new details on the Intel 18A process at the 2025 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits. The figures from the company paint a rosy picture of Intel 18A's future.
Intel 18A features two key technologies: Gate-all-around (GAA) transistors and backside power delivery. The new GAA transistor architecture represents the biggest change Intel has made since the FinFET architecture was introduced in 2011. The Intel 3 process, which Intel uses for its current lineup of server CPUs, was the final process to use FinFET transistors.