At the Foundry Direct Connect event held on February 21 local time, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger (Pat Gelsinger) introduced the business vision of the company's foundry division, Intel Foundry, and revealed the company's technology roadmap and the most advanced chip manufacturing process.
Gelsinger said Intel will use ASML's High NA EUV lithography machine to make the next generation of chips. This lithography machine is worth 3$500 million, but only the size of a double-decker bus, can make the smallest transistor in a commercial lithography system. Late last year, the first High NA EUV lithography machine arrived at Intel's chip factory in Oregon.
At the meeting, Gelsinger detailed the restructuring plan of Intel Foundry. At the same time, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Broadcom and other chip industry executives also attended the meeting.
Intel's foundry business unit has won chip production contracts worth more than $15 billion to date, including the production of a custom chip for Microsoft using the upcoming Intel 18A manufacturing process, according to Gelsinger. This is the most advanced chip manufacturing process on Intel's publicly disclosed development roadmap.
It's a name change, a reorganization, and a new organizational model that will rebuild Intel. In his speech, Gelsinger said, "In chip production, Moore's Law has no end and is still valid. ”
At the meeting, Gelsinger also introduced a more advanced process in the company's plans, Intel 14A, which will be launched in 2027. He also mentioned that the use of High NA EUV lithography machines is also expected to reduce processor defects and speed up chip production, which will also benefit Intel's manufacturing plans.
With the launch of Intel 14A, the company plans to produce multiple versions of the processor, Gelsinger said. One of the versions will be named after the letter P and will have between 5% and 10% better performance than the base version. Intel's competitor TSMC has also offered some performance-optimized versions of the chip.
Intel also plans to adopt a "T" design in some of its upcoming processes. The technology will provide support for through-silicon vias, which can stack multiple chips on top of each other to form a large 3D processor. Intel uses through-silicon vias to build its GPU Max series of AI accelerators, which integrate 47 semiconductor modules and about 100 billion transistors into a single chip.
"AI technology is profoundly changing the world, changing the way we think about technology and the chips that power AI. This creates an unprecedented opportunity for Intel Foundry, the world's most innovative chip designer and the world's first AI-ready foundry. ”
According to Intel, chip engineers typically use a specialized type of software called an electronic design automation (EDA) tool to design chips. Today, six EDA software manufacturers will provide tool certification and IP support to help customers design chips that can be manufactured using the Intel 18A process. Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys and Ansys are among the participants, with Synopsys and Ansys currently in talks for a $35 billion acquisition.
At the same time, in many cases, silicon teams are not developing new projects from scratch, but rather building their chips on pre-packaged blueprints from Arm Holdings PLC. At Foundry Direct Connect, Intel also introduced that the company is working with British chip designer Arm on an event called the "Emerging Business Program" to provide manufacturing support, financial assistance and other resources to startups developing ARM-based chip systems.
"We will operate a world-class foundry with an unrivalled chip fabrication system that will manufacture and ** chips more resiliently, sustainably and safely," said Stuart Pann, senior vice president at Intel Foundry. ”