During the Intel Foundry Direct Connect event, the company announced that it plans to launch production/development of the Intel 10A node (1nm analog) at the end of 2027. At the same time, production based on the 14A (1.4 nm) node is scheduled for 2026. The company is also working on creating fully autonomous AI-based fabs in the future.
The slide shows the share of silicon wafers the company plans to use for chip manufacturing based on different production processes.
In its previous announcements, Intel did not specify a start date for its upcoming 14A node, but has now announced that it will begin production in 2026. More importantly, Intel will begin production/development of its yet-to-be-announced 10A node in late 2027. The suffix A in Intel’s node naming stands for angstrom (a unit of length equal to 10-¹⁰ m or one ten-millionth of a millimeter), and 10 angstroms translate into 1 nm, meaning it is the company’s first 1nm node.
Intel did not provide any details about the 10A node, but said that it should deliver double-digit power/performance improvements. The improvement over the 14A node is expected to be 14-15%.
Intel plans to aggressively increase its Foveros, EMIB, SIP, and HBI package production capacity. This will ensure a constant supply of advanced processors with complex packaging, including HBM.
At the same time, the company intends to expand its operations. In addition to the existing production facilities, Intel plans to invest $100 billion in expansion and new production sites over the next 5 years. Geographically distributed production facilities will allow Intel to have global redundancy of its operations, as well as offer its customers the opportunity to use a supply chain entirely located in America.
It is also noted that the company relies heavily on the automation of its production facilities. Intel is now planning to use artificial intelligence in all segments of its production flows, from capacity planning and forecasting to increasing product yields and actual production operations. The timeframe for such changes is not specified, but they should affect every aspect of the company’s operations in the future. This includes the introduction of AI «Cobots» (collaborative robots that can work together with humans) and widespread robotic automation in the production process.
Source: tomshardware
