Intel on Track to Start Making 14nm Broadwell Chips in 2013

From X-bit Labs: Intel Corp. confirmed during the conference call with financial analysts on Thursday that it is on track to begin making chips using 14nm process technology later this year. The company already started to assign space and equipment for 14nm product lines back in the fourth quarter of 2012 and is confident about its plans.

“We will begin our transition to 14nm as we begin the world's first 14 nanometer products towards the end of this year,” said Paul Otellini, chief executive officer of Intel, who is planning to retire in May.

Stacy Smith, the chief financial officer of the company, added that Intel started to “to redirect fab space and equipment to 14nm” back in Q4 2012 and that Intel is on-track to “start production on the 14nm process this year”. The CFO of the company did not elaborate which fabs are set to produce 14nm chips code-named Broadwell later this year.

In mid-2012 Intel announced that its Fab D1X in Oregon, Fab 42 in Arizona and Fab 24 in Ireland will be converted to make 14nm chips. Later on, the situation with the Fab 24’s upgrade got unclear due to market rumours, but Intel did not make any official statements.

Originally, Intel referred to its current 14nm process technology as to 16nm since "16 nm" term firstly came from the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). Nowadays Intel and other companies, including Globalfoundries and Samsung, are working on 14nm fabrication technologies for next-generation chips.

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