Intel announces that it has begun risk production of chips on the 18A node. This is an important milestone for the company, which can ill afford delays in the development of new production lines.
Intel has sufficient confidence in its Intel 18A process to initiate low-volume risk production. The company stated this at its Vision 2025 conference. Intel 18A will be the competitor to TSMC N2. Both figures refer to a somewhat arbitrary resolution of the chip manufacturing process, where 18A stands for 18 Angstrom or 1.8 nm, and TSMC refers to 2 nm. Intel 18A promises to be more performant than TSMC N2, although the latter can achieve higher density.
It is unclear which chips Intel is currently fabricating on 18A. The company’s own Panther Lake processors are at the top of the list and should, in principle, be rolling off the production line in volume by the end of this year. Fully scaling up Intel 18A for internal use and customers will likely only be achieved in 2026.
Important Step
The move to risk production implies that Intel has more or less finalized its 18A process, and customers are satisfied with the results. This is good news, as last year there were still doubts about the process. With the technical details settled, Intel can now begin optimizing the production line for mass production.
How smoothly this scaling up will go is anyone’s guess. The growth of a process from limited production to large-scale manufacturing often brings additional challenges. However, risk production is an important hurdle that Intel has now overcome. With this, the chip specialist seems to be at least on schedule for Panther Lake later this year.
Intel can hardly afford any delays. The company still holds the lion’s share of the CPU market, but is technically on the defensive. TSMC’s factories have been producing more advanced chips for several years, which competitor AMD benefits from. Furthermore, Intel needs to develop CPUs that can compete with the efficiency of ARM designs. This is only possible if Intel’s factories are technically on par with those of the competition.