➀ The author argues that Intel is not crucial to the industry's success and can be replaced; ➁ Intel faces challenges from competition and the decline of the x86 market; ➂ The author suggests splitting Intel into product and foundry entities to improve focus.
Recent #Intel news in the semiconductor industry
➀ Intel is facing increased competition from AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm in the x86 chip space; ➁ Qualcomm disputes Intel's claims about high return rates for Snapdragon PCs; ➂ Qualcomm expects 30-50% of laptops to move to non-x86 platforms within five years.
➀ Dr. Tahir Ghani discussed the impact of Moore's Law and the challenges of energy efficiency in semiconductor technology. ➁ He highlighted the evolution of transistor technology over six decades. ➂ He advocated for new transistor designs and collaborations to improve energy efficiency for AI computing.
➀ ASUS will host two CES 2025 events; ➁ The ROG event will feature new gaming laptops, desktops, and components; ➂ AMD and Intel will introduce new processors, with ASUS showcasing compatible products; ➃ Both events will be live streamed.
➀ The Intel Arc B580 GPU, priced at $249.99, is already sold out at major retailers; ➁ More stock is expected to arrive in January 2025; ➂ The GPU offers strong performance and value, surpassing competitors like the GeForce RTX 4060 and Radeon RX 7600.
➀ Ed has aspirations to become the CEO of Intel after serving as a junior minister; ➁ His strategy focuses on enhancing America's national security through IC manufacturing excellence; ➂ He proposes a strategy of developing new processes and building fabs for global superiority, with international partnerships and control over output.
➀ Intel's Core 200 laptop lineup is leaked, including 22 new mobile CPUs to be launched next month at CES 2025; ➁ The lineup is divided into Ultra and non-Ultra SKUs, with the Ultra series based on the latest Arrow Lake architecture; ➂ Detailed specifications of the CPUs are not yet available, but the leak suggests they are already with OEMs.
➀ KitGuru is partnering with Gigabyte for a hardware giveaway on Day 15 of their Advent Calendar. The prize includes an AMD or Intel ICE White series motherboard, a Waterforce IIX ICE CPU cooler, and a matching white power supply. The winner can choose between Intel or AMD motherboards. Additionally, a Gigabyte M6 mouse will be included. ➁ The giveaway is open to participants worldwide. ➂ The winner will be randomly selected after 11AM GMT on December 16th, with a new competition announced for Day 16. The winner has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. ➃ The competition runs from 11AM GMT on December 15th to 10:59AM GMT on December 16th, with prize delivery potentially delayed due to the Christmas season.
➀ Intel's Arrow Lake showcases significant memory overclocking potential; ➁ The author sets a world memory overclocking frequency record at DDR5-12666 MHz; ➂ Tips for enthusiasts on improving performance with standard cooling and liquid nitrogen overclocking.
➀ Ayar Labs has closed a $155M Series D round; ➁ AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and others participated; ➂ The company is focused on high-speed optical I/O interconnect technology.
➀ The Elektra Awards 2024 were held, marking a great evening for the industry; ➁ Morris Chang shared his thoughts on Intel, Gelsinger, and Samsung during a book launch; ➂ The EW BrightSparks cohort of 2024 was unveiled at the Elektra Awards, highlighting the future of UK electronics; ➃ Europe's VEGA-C rocket regains launch capability, and the Copernicus Sentinel-1C satellite delivers its first radar images of Earth.
➀ Bachmann's third-generation MX200 processor series is set to launch in the first half of 2025; ➁ The new MX215 processor module features more Ethernet and CAN interfaces than the MX214 CPU; ➂ The next-generation MX series is based on VxWorks 7 with secure storage capabilities for keys and passwords.
➀ Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner, co-CEOs of Intel, have differing opinions on spinning off the Intel Foundry division; ➁ Intel is focused on making its 18A process technology successful; ➂ Intel has received several requests for proposals (RFPs) for its 18A technology.
➀ The semiconductor industry's closely guarded secret, yield, is now being discussed openly, following allegations of low yields from Intel and TSMC. ➁ Intel's 18A has a 10% yield, while TSMC's 2nm process has a 60% yield, according to recent reports. ➂ Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, argues that yield is not a measure of process maturity and suggests defect density as a better indicator.
➀ Ayar Labs, an optical I/O specialist, has raised $155 million, bringing its total funding to $370 million and valuing the company over $1 billion.➁ The round was led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital, with participation from AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, Nvidia, 3M Ventures, and Autopilot, among others.➂ Ayar Labs has developed in-package optical I/O technology to enhance AI infrastructure efficiency and performance.
➀ This article highlights the significant growth in server CPU core counts from 2010 to 2025, showing the increasing competition and architectural choices in the market. ➁ The growth rate of server CPU core counts is accelerating, and the number of vendors participating is proliferating. ➂ The article discusses the challenges of selling general-purpose compute servers versus AI servers, and the impact of AI on the industry.
➀ The departure of CEO Pat Gelsinger highlights ongoing issues at Intel; ➁ Semiconductor technology and supply chain control are crucial in the AI era; ➂ Intel's board of directors has made a series of poor decisions over the past two decades.
➀ Morris Chang comments on Intel's search for a new strategy and CEO, expressing his views on Pat Gelsinger's attitude towards TSMC. ➁ Chang discusses Samsung's technological challenges and South Korea's political turmoil. ➂ He addresses questions about Intel's consultancy requests and TSMC's cancellation of a discount for Intel due to Gelsinger's remarks.
➀ Arm CEO, Rene Haas, expresses his views on Intel's current situation, highlighting the importance of innovation in the tech industry.
➁ Haas discusses Intel's strategic challenges, particularly the IDM vs. Fabless debate, and his belief in the potential advantages of vertical integration.
➂ The CEO addresses rumors about Arm's potential acquisition of Intel and its plans to expand its chip manufacturing business.
➀ Intel, TSMC, and Samsung are advancing their processes to 1.8nm (18A) and 1.6nm (16A) with full-gate transistors (Intel calls them RibbonFET) and further to the 14A node.
➁ Imec is researching the next-generation complementary field-effect transistor (CFET) stacked transistors on the process roadmap.
➂ Imec will showcase its CFET standard cell at the 2024 IEEE International Electronic Devices Meeting (IEDM) this week, which includes two rows of CFET with a shared signal wiring wall, reducing the area of logic and SRAM units significantly.
➃ Intel has made breakthroughs in 2D transistor technology using beyond-silicon materials, chip interconnects, and packaging technologies.
➄ Intel's RibbonFET is the company's first new transistor design since the introduction of FinFET 13 years ago and is the company's first full-gate (GAA) transistor.