From ExtremeTech: Intel has been on something of a tear of late. After its Architecture Day earlier this month, where the company debuted its plans for new CPUs, GPUs, 3D interconnects, and overall foundry strategy, it’s now announcing a new set of manufacturing expansions intended to serve growing product markets.
According to Ann B. Kelleher, senior vice president and general manager of manufacturing and operations at Intel Corporation, Intel will expand its manufacturing capabilities in pursuit of a total addressable market for silicon it estimates at $300B. This shift is being pitched as part of Intel’s transformation from a PC-centric company to a data-centric company. While such terms might seem like little more than marketing, there’s real cash behind the shift. The combined impact of AI, machine learning, IoT, IIoT (industrial Internet of Things), self-driving vehicles, and 5G connectivity make the conventional PC industry look tiny. Long term, these markets could even outstrip whatever slice of mobile revenue that Intel might have claimed a half-decade back. Having missed in that instance, the company is determined not to miss again.
In addition to the 14nm capacity shifts the company has already undertaken this year, Intel will continue its scale-out work in Fab 42, in preparation for 7nm production at that facility. It plans to perform future Optane development at its Rio Rancho facility in New Mexico, along with unspecified plans for next-generation memory and storage technologies. While Kelleher doesn’t mention Optane specifically, the Albuquerque Journal reported in September that Intel was hiring for Optane production at the Rio Rancho facility following its split with Micron.
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