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This past week, Intel released its quarterly earnings report and took some time to discuss its upcoming products. Though its earnings showed AI has taken over the server industry and dented the company’s data center CPU sales, CEO Pat Gelsinger was bullish about the company’s upcoming products, including those using its next-generation 18A process, the final node in the company’s “five nodes in four years” strategy. He said it’s still on track for 2025.
Intel is still trying to shake the reputation that its products are prone to delays, so Gelsinger takes every opportunity to remind investors and the media that those days are behind it now. As proof, he said in the earnings call that the company’s first-generation gate-all-around (GAA) RibbonFET process, known as Intel 20A, is on track for launch this year. The follow-up is Intel 18A, which he said will go into production in the first half of 2025, with products arriving shortly after that. For reference, 20A will be used for the company’s upcoming desktop and mobile platforms, Arrow Lake (desktop) and Lunar Lake (mobile). They will replace Raptor Lake and Meteor Lake.
Intel 20A and 18A will both feature the company’s backside power delivery technology, which it calls PowerVia.
Credit: Intel
The Intel 18A process is a watershed node for the company, and expectations are high. Intel says it will allow it to surpass its rivals in performance for the first time in many years, signifying Intel’s return to the apex of semiconductor engineering. Gelsinger says 18A will be used for the next-generation desktop platform, Panther Lake, and the Xeon 7 Clearwater Forest chips, both of which will arrive next year.
According to Wccftech, the CEO stated its Intel 18A PDK (process design kit) will be released this quarter, allowing customers to get started on their designs now for a launch next year. Intel has already signed several notable contracts for 18A, including what is likely a massive deal with Microsoft, which got the industry’s attention. Gelsinger has also previously stated he is betting the entire company’s future on Intel 18A, so its importance cannot be understated.
One interesting sidebar to all this news is that in 2022, Gelsinger announced that Intel 18A was “ahead of schedule.” At the time, he noted that it was scheduled for 2025, but Intel was roughly six months ahead of that date, so it would arrive in late 2024 instead. With this week’s announcement, it seems that is still true today; Gelsinger said 18A production will begin later this year, with volume production happening in the first half of 2025.