Intel officially released a roadmap for its technology and development process, from now and through the year 2025. The roadmap is one of its most detailed to date and lists down the chipmaker’s upcoming process and packaging technologies.

Firstly and moving beyond its 10nm SuperFin process, the naming convention of Intel’s next several die lithography will be ditching the “nm” reference. At least, that seems to be the case for the next three generations. As such, these process nodes will simply be known as Intel 7, Intel 4, and Intel 3.

As per the official fluff, Intel 7 is what’s next on the roadmap, after the chipmaker’s current 10nm has run its course on the market. Previously known as the 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process, Intel says that this die lithography is expected to deliver approximately 10% to 15% more performance-per-watt (PPW) over the current 10nm SuperFin transistors, along with having more enhanced features. This includes an increased strain, lower resistance materials, novel high-density patterning techniques, streamlined structures. And even better routing with its stacks.

In terms of availability, Intel is forecasting production of Intel 7 to start during the first quarter of 2022.

Intel 4, on the other hand, is when Intel expects to shrink its process node further, from 10nm to 7nm. Moreover, it will be the company’s first full embrace of the EUV die lithography; a technology that TSMC and Samsung are already using with their own chips. As for its performance, Intel says it will have a 20% PPW over Intel 7, with production to being during the second half of 2022, while product shipping is expected to happen the following year.

Intel 3 is the last product on this list and will be the final process node that its maker says will make use of the FinFET process. Sadly, the chipmaker’s announcement about this isn’t flushed with a whole lot of detail, only that it will deliver 18% PPW over Intel 4 and that production is expected to begin in the second half of 2023.

One important point to note is that all three die lithography will still actually be based on the SuperFin process, and it is only after Intel 3 will Intel move on to a brand new process altogether, with Intel 20A spearheading the charge.

With Intel 20A, the company will also introduce two new “breakthrough” technology: PowerVia and RibbonFET. Starting with PowerVia, Intel says that the technology will be an industry-first implementation of a backside power delivery, which we can see via the cross-section provided. By doing this, the company says that it optimises signal routing while reducing droop and lowering noise.

RibbonFET, as you can imagine, is set to be a new transistor architecture that is set to replace FinFET, which was introduced back in 2011. Like Intel 20A, there isn’t a whole lot of detail about the process, and it is likely that we will only be hearing more when the node’s production gets ramped in 2024.

This post has been edited by turbohkp: Jul 27 2021, 07:49 PM

Qualcomm and Amazon will be the first customers for Intel’s new Foundry Services business. The company behind the Snapdragon chipsets will source its SoCs from Intel on its 20A process technology which uses new RibbonFET transistor architecture and promises improved power management. The node is scheduled to be released by 2024. Amazon’s Web Services division (AWS) will rely on Intel’s new IFS packaging solutions though no specific chipsets will actually be produced for Amazon.

Making chipsets and packaging solutions for third-party companies signals a major shift in Intel’s business plan and solidifies its aims to retake the leading position in the semiconductor segment by 2025. The company also announced a roadmap for its processors including a brand new naming scheme for its chipsets starting with the upcoming 12-gen Alder Lake chips set to release later this year. The industry standard nanometer node naming will be gone in favor of numbers. Yes, Intel will call its next-gen 10nm in-house chipset Intel 7. It promises a 10-15% performance gain and is already in production.

The version after that will be called Intel 4 based on a 7nm node and is expected to debut sometime in 2023. It will be based on EUV lithography and promises a 20% performance gain over its predecessor. The Intel 20A which is hailed as the breakout innovation in Intel’s pipeline and the one that Qualcomm’s chips will be based on is expected in the first half of 2024.

Quite misleading - Intel 7 seems to be enhanced 10nm, Intel 4 is the real 7nm process, Intel 3 is maybe enhanced 7nm.

Marketing speak to cover the fact that they're behind schedule and yet to appear that they're not so far behind the 7nm or 5nm of TMSC/Samsung.

Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm will be releasing their 3nm processors in 2022 and 2023.

Other than enterprise clients, no one else is going to buy Intel processors by the end of the decade if Intel does not change its current strategy.

2024. human still alive? not yet killed by covid?

so we cantl expect intel10+++++ process?

This post has been edited by zerorating: Jul 27 2021, 08:02 PM

Yup

Hmm, very unlikely.

20A is the process node name, not core

TSMC >>> all

Intel is still in talks with global foundries for purchase.

They might not be successful in climbing the steep ladder to over throw ASQs.

Anyway, why do you say that it is unlikely?

Janji dulu, nanti delay

Actually the names of these process node haven't been related to any component for many years, like since 28nm IIRC

They are simply whatever marketing want to call it

Here's million transistors/mm² according to WikiChip:

TSMC: 16FF was 28.88 MTr/mm², 10FF was 52.51 MTr/mm², N7 was 91.2 MTr/mm², N6 will be 114.2 MTr/mm² and N5 will be 171.3 MTr/mm²

Samsung: 14LPP was 32.94 MTr/mm², 10LPP was 51.82 MTr/mm², 8LPP was 61.18 MTr/mm², 7LPP was 95.08 MTr/mm², 6LPP will be 112.79 MTr/mm² and 5LPE will be 126.89 MTr/mm²

Tl;dr these are just generational names

This post has been edited by KekTart: Jul 27 2021, 08:30 PM

spot on

It takes Sony walkman a decade to wake up from analog media. Even when they were so late, they still didn't die.

The alternative CPU brands back then were fighting with a gaint in the court, other than this AMD dominating the consumer market in these few years, Intel is still a large market share brand without an Intel-like competitor. All these have happen before with Cyrix.

Of course, nothing last forever. I always thought that there will be a Yaohan in Happy Garden forever when ayam 2". I always thought that BN will rule forever.


Even if Intel didn't wake up and face the challange, I think their products are still good for a few generations instead of just a decade. I also think AMD would be weaker without Intel as a Goliath.

This post has been edited by samftrmd: Jul 27 2021, 10:10 PM