09-05-2018, 07:59 AM
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/27...until-2021
Quote:Intel’s already-rough process technology ramp took another hit last week. According to Mark Li, an electronics engineer and analyst with Bernstein, the company will delay its introduction of Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) until 2021. That’s several years after rivals TSMC and Samsung are expected to have the technology in play — maybe.
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The optics of this kind of delay aren’t great, but I’d still counsel caution before concluding that this EUV news is additional proof of Intel’s loss of overall process technology leadership. Every foundry committed to building leading-edge products is working on EUV, but nobody — nobody — has yet demonstrated that they can build and ship SoCs in volume while using EUV for critical layers. This step may not happen until the introduction of 5nm; Scotten Jones, president of IC Knowledge LLC, notes that he expects solutions to be in place for contacts and vias at 7nm, but that the timeline for hitting foundry targets for 5nm is very tight and requires new pellicles.
Intel’s EUV delay isn’t a new wrinkle. It’s an unsurprising result of the company’s decision to delay 10nm. The degree to which this could impact the company’s future product development will depend a great deal on how successful the other foundries are in shipping EUV from their own factories. Despite the hype around the technology, don’t expect to see it making an immediate or dramatic difference in anyone’s product performance in the near future. That’s not what EUV delivers is expected to deliver, and the gains are going to roll out gradually over multiple nodes as manufacturers insert the technology.