Intel on Track with Volume 14nm Production This Year

From X-bit Labs: On Wednesday Intel Corp. reiterated committment to start commercial production of central processing units and other products using 14nm process technology later this year. Given the fact that Intel has no plans to introduce its next-generation Broadwell microprocessors to the desktop market in 2014, the actual manufacturing volumes will not be as high as they could have been.

“Our investments and expertise in process technology continue to be the foundation of our industry leadership with 22 nanometer defect density and throughput times at record low levels and 14 nanometer on track for production by the end of the year,” said Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel, during quarterly conference call with financial analysts.

Traditionally, Intel starts to produce chips using new manufacturing process around October – November in a bid to formally introduce them in Q1 or Q2 the next calendar year. Usually Intel launches new central processing units based on new high-performance micro-architecture for desktops, notebooks, workstations and even single-socket servers at the same time. This will not be the case with chips to be made using 14nm manufacturing technology.

Broadwell chips will only land into mobile computers next year, according to Intel’s plans. For desktops, uniprocessor servers and workstations there will be so-called Haswell Refresh microprocessors made using 22nm fabrication process. As a result, the volumes of 14nm products this year may be lower than traditional output using a new node.

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