Intel has been pushing the laws of physics for years. Now, physics is pushing back.

The chipmaker has again delayed the rollout of its 10-nanometer technology, the next generation of smaller, smarter, faster microprocessors. Originally expected in 2015, Intel now says the chips won't be widely available before 2019 - and maybe not until late in the year.

A high percentage of the 10nm chips - produced at Intel's Hillsboro research factories -- are plagued with defects that render them useless. As chip features shrink to scales measured in just a few atoms, manufacturing techniques have proven unable to keep up with the rapid pace of advancement Intel has always promised.

Moore's Law has hit a wall. For decades Intel produced new generations of chips on a two-year cycle, multiplying the number of transistors each time and thereby achieving massive increases in computing power.

That long, storied run is over.

The delays represent an embarrassing and expensive setback for Intel, which long astounded the semiconductor industry with dependable and dramatic improvements in its chip technology and was plainly caught off guard by its current stumbles.

"Intel probably got a little overconfident because they got to be so good. They'd come out every two years with another process and were just killing everybody else in the market," said Dan Hutcheson, chief executive of VLSI Research, which closely follows the science of semiconductors.

Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich admitted last week that his company's lead in chip technology is "narrowing," a remarkable statement from a company that has long dismissed its rivals' efforts.

Intel set an aggressive goal for shrinking features on its 10nm chips, Krzanich explained: "We think we bit off a little too much in this case."

Investors remain enthusiastic about Intel, and its stock is near its highest point since the dot-com era. Intel's overall business remains solid, and its manufacturing troubles don't appear to have affected demand for its chips. The company's first-quarter revenue, $16.1 billion, topped forecasts by a full $1 billion.

Still, Intel's ongoing manufacturing trouble reflects a new era for the company - and the entire industry. The exponential growth in computing power predicted by Moore's Law, named for Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, may at last be petering out.

"The reality is the world has changed," Hutcheson said.

Intel rolled out new generation of computer chips roughly every two years from the 1980s through 2011, enabling chips that were consistently more powerful than their predecessors even as the cost of that computing power fell.

Cheaper and better, every couple years, like clockwork. It was a process so regular, so dependable, Intel called it "tick-tock."

Intel pulled off that magic trick by steadily shrinking the features on its chips, packing more and more transistors into the same space, and by changing the materials and shape of the circuitry. Engineers at Intel's Ronler Acres research campus in Hillsboro kept up the pace even as the features on the chips approached the atomic level.

Now, though, Intel appears to be pushing up against the limits of what's possible.

The chipmaker blames its continuing woes on delays in a new production tool for extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV. The tool enables chipmakers to imprint narrower patterns onto silicon wafers to create smaller features.

EUV tools have themselves suffered years of delay but are finally arriving in clean rooms in Oregon and around the world. It's too late for Intel's 10nm chips, though - Intel says it won't use EUV until it starts making 7nm chips some years from now.

So Intel must resort to multipatterning, a slow, exacting process that requires passing chips through the lithography process several times. Each time, the patterning machines must line up precisely with the last go-around. Even a microscopic misalignment will throw circuitry off and wreck the entire chip.

"They start moving around, and you don't get perfect overlay for a multitude of reasons," Hutcheson said. "There's no leeway."

Intel said costs associated with the 10nm chips contributed to a reduction in operating profits by 4 percentage points in the most recent quarter. The company indicated last week it has a clear understanding of what caused its manufacturing problems but said it will take time to correct them.

In the meantime, Intel continues making upgrades to its aging 14nm processor node, which it says is performing 70 percent better than when those chips started hitting the market four years ago.

"These guys are figuring out that it's a lot easier to take the existing node and figure out how to make it denser," Hutcheson said.

Intel maintains that, even with the 10nm delays, its chips remain ahead of rivals such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. That has been true for many years but may not be any longer, said veteran chip industry insider Jim McGregor, with TIRIAS Research.

"They're running up against the laws of physics. We've been putting band-aids on the process technology for a decade," McGregor said. "Once you get up against that wall it's kind of hard to get an advantage out of it."

The slowdown means computer users may have to settle for evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, improvements in performance. Laptops, smartphones and other gadgets will keep getting better, but the remarkable leaps that revolutionized computing in the '80s, '90s and '00s may be in the past.

Already, the tech industry is looking elsewhere for ways to upgrade the gadgets we all depend on, investing in improvements in wireless communication, battery performance and artificial intelligence.

Intel has adjusted its own business, investing billions of dollars on advanced memory chips, self-driving cars and the Internet of Things - a term describing connected devices and home appliances. Some of those markets are already producing big returns for Intel.

It's one thing for another company to catch up with Intel's manufacturing technology. It's another thing entirely to capitalize on that advance.

Take data centers, for example, which arguably are Intel's most important business as the PC market flags. Intel chips dominate in data centers, and the company's first-quarter sales in that segment grew 24 percent from the same period in 2017 to $5.2 billion, providing nearly a third of Intel's total revenue.

While other companies are working on customized data center processors and general purpose chips for server farms, McGregor said it can take two years or more for large data centers to incorporate new designs. So no one poses an immediate threat to Intel's hegemony.

"Intel still is the king of the hill. They really haven't had anyone challenge them," McGregor said. "I don't see anybody seriously impacting their data center growth for the next few years at least."

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699