From CNET: After years of trouble and delay, Intel's chipmaking business finally has some good news to report. The most advanced manufacturing process the company has committed to will arrive in the second half of 2024, six months earlier than planned.
Intel fell behind rivals Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung because of problems modernizing its manufacturing, and it convinced chip designer Pat Gelsinger to return to the company as chief executive in 2021. Shortly afterward, Intel laid out a road map that meant five improvements to its manufacturing processes in four years, with manufacturing processes named Intel 7, Intel 4, Intel 8, Intel 20A and Intel 18A. Each step improves a chip's performance relative to its power consumption.
Those steps are the foundation of a plan to catch up to rivals in 2024 and surpass them in 2025. If successful, Gelsinger's plan will help Windows PCs keep up with ever more powerful Macs, return Intel to its glory days at the vanguard of the semiconductor business, justify its tens of billions of dollars of expenditures and slow the shift of chip manufacturing from the US to Asia.
"Intel must have good confidence in the [schedule] pull in," said Tirias analyst Kevin Krewell. "Otherwise, why announce it this early?"
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