GlobalFoundries' 7nm process is set to make Intel's process leadership evaporate

When will Intel start releasing 10nm products?

| Source: wikichip Author: Mark Campbell

GlobalFoundries' 7nm process is set to make Intel's process leadership evaporate





A lot of Intel's recent difficulties can be attributed to physics. Decreasing node sizes introduces unique problems that only become more complex as transistors get smaller and products become more logic dense. These issues have slowed down the evolution of process technology, leading many to explore the use of new materials of r future processors.



Intel's upcoming 10nm process has been delayed several times, giving competing foundries an ideal opportunity to catch up with Intel, with Globalfoundries making a bold jump from 14nm to 7nm, bringing the company into striking range of Intel's 10nm process.



The delay of EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet) technology to market has slowed down the production of next-generation nodes significantly, with the technology being slated to take the world to the limits of silicon, with Samsung planning to go all the way down to 3nm. Globalfoundries plans to integrate EUV technology into their 7nm LP (Leading performance) node, but initial offerings will not be making use of the new technology.



Globalfoundries upcoming 7nm node is already set to be the home for AMD's upcoming Zen2 and Navi CPU/GPU architectures, promising a 2x increase in transistor density and a 40% increase in performance or a 55% decrease in power consumption. This makes the jump from 14nm to 7nm a transformative leap for GlobalFoundries, with Intel's 10nm process to GF's 7nm process they are more similar than they are different". It appears that Intel's process leadership is starting to disappear, which is great news for AMD's future processors. For the past number of years, Intel has been one of the world leaders when it comes to silicon manufacturing/process technology. Intel was the first to introduce FinFET technology, beating most competing foundries to the punch by several years, though in recent times the company has found it increasingly difficult to push their next-generation 10nm node to market.A lot of Intel's recent difficulties can be attributed to physics. Decreasing node sizes introduces unique problems that only become more complex as transistors get smaller and products become more logic dense. These issues have slowed down the evolution of process technology, leading many to explore the use of new materials of r future processors.Intel's upcoming 10nm process has been delayed several times, giving competing foundries an ideal opportunity to catch up with Intel, with Globalfoundries making a bold jump from 14nm to 7nm, bringing the company into striking range of Intel's 10nm process.The delay of EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet) technology to market has slowed down the production of next-generation nodes significantly, with the technology being slated to take the world to the limits of silicon, with Samsung planning to go all the way down to 3nm. Globalfoundries plans to integrate EUV technology into their 7nm LP (Leading performance) node, but initial offerings will not be making use of the new technology.Globalfoundries upcoming 7nm node is already set to be the home for AMD's upcoming Zen2 and Navi CPU/GPU architectures, promising a 2x increase in transistor density and a 40% increase in performance or a 55% decrease in power consumption. This makes the jump from 14nm to 7nm a transformative leap for GlobalFoundries, with semiwiki noting that "

(GlobalFoundries 14nm vs 7nm)



What remains to be seen is how well both Intel's 10nm and GobalFoundries' 7nm processes perform, thought the sad fact of the matter is that we will likely never see any directly comparable products on each node, making it difficult to make any conclusive comparisons. Regardless, it is clear that the gap between Intel and their competitors is set to get narrower moving forward, creating a much more competitive foundry market moving forward.



With 7nm GlobalFoundries will be utilising several technologies that they acquired from IBM back in 2015, with 7nm being a huge turning point for the company. GlobalFoundries' original 14nm process suffered from a lot of problems, forcing them to license Samsung's 14nm process to remain competitive, the move to 7nm will bring the company back into the forefront of the foundry industry using their own technology. Let's just hope that 7nm can come to market without any major issues.



The Foundry market is set to become more competitive than ever before, especially given the viability of modern EUV technology in the coming years.



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