A new report suggests that Intel has outsourced a good chunk of its future manufacturing to TSMC. Production is expected to kick off when TSMC's 3nm node is fully operational, which is expected to happen sometime in H2 2022. Intel is reportedly assisting TSMC in its 2nm R&D too.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-has-reportedly-outsourced-some-of-its-CPU-production-to-TSMC.517373.0.html
If they sell own fabs then I'm fine when they will go fab-less. If no... then wtf. They will not produce and will not allow others to produce as well in this way.
Intel has reportedly built Atom based chips previously at TSM. I would not be surprised to see Intel move production of their 5G base station chips to TSM, which are currently using the Tremont Atom cores. The next generation will use the Gracemont Atom cores that are also used as the small cores in Alder Lake.
Intel has also repeated recently that the external fabs will be used more for "disaggregated" designs ... referring to chiplets being built on different processes. The Xe-HPC die photos indicate this isn't a far-off future plan.
Intel plans on manufacturing most of their products in-house. Not just some. I believe even licensing a node is on the table.
Quote from: opelit on January 28, 2021, 16:45:50
If they sell own fabs then I'm fine when they will go fab-less. If no... then wtf. They will not produce and will not allow others to produce as well in this way.
They still plan to regain manufacturing superiority. And Intel has such huge volume that nobody could satisfy their needs. Whole new facilities would have to be built. The only way for them to go fab-less would be to split the company which would solve exactly nothing. It would just shield their design side from any economical problems of their manufacturing side. That would be a monumental resignation. Intel is, after all, historically a manufacturing company.
Quote from: opelit on January 28, 2021, 16:45:50
If they sell own fabs then I'm fine when they will go fab-less. If no... then wtf. They will not produce and will not allow others to produce as well in this way.
I can only guess that part of the strategy is offloading some of the lower margin production so they can free some capacity for higher margin production. To compensate less than ideal yields. It doesn't look like high-end CPUs, which are relevant to us, will be outsourced. But I'm not watching it closely. It doesn't look like their own facilities will be sitting idle.
Intel has a history of taking technology from potential partners and then making it their own and cutting out the partner, Alpha to Pentium comes to mind. I hope they are not taking TSMC for a ride to just take knowledge and capability, if this is a genuine partnership then good for Intel and TSMC.