Wednesday, January 13th 2021
TrendForce: TSMC to Mass-Produce Select Intel Products, CPUs Starting 2021
According to a market analysis from TrendForce, Intel's manufacturing efforts with TSMC will go way beyond a potential TSMC technology licensing for that company's manufacturing technology to be employed in Intel's own fabs. The market research firm says that Intel will instead procure wafers directly from TSMC, starting on 2H2021, in the order of 20-25% of total production for some of its non-CPU products. But the manufacturing deal is said to go beyond that, with TSMC picking up orders for Intel's Core i3 CPUs in the company's 5 nm manufacturing node - one that Intel will take years to scale down to on its own manufacturing capabilities.
According to TrendForce, that effort will scale upwards with TSMC manufacturing certain allotments of Intel's midrange and high-end CPUs using the semiconductor manufacturer's 3 nm technology in 2022. TrendForce believes that increased outsourcing of Intel's product lines will allow the company to not only continue its existence as a major IDM, but also maintain and prioritize in-house production lines for chips with high margins, while more effectively spending CAPEX on advanced R&D due to savings on fabrication technology scaling - fewer in-house chips means lower needs for investment in capacity increases, which would allow the company to sink the savings into further R&D. The move would also allow Intel to close the gap with rival AMD's manufacturing advantages in a more critical, timely manner.
Sources:
TrendForce, Via ctimes.com.tw
According to TrendForce, that effort will scale upwards with TSMC manufacturing certain allotments of Intel's midrange and high-end CPUs using the semiconductor manufacturer's 3 nm technology in 2022. TrendForce believes that increased outsourcing of Intel's product lines will allow the company to not only continue its existence as a major IDM, but also maintain and prioritize in-house production lines for chips with high margins, while more effectively spending CAPEX on advanced R&D due to savings on fabrication technology scaling - fewer in-house chips means lower needs for investment in capacity increases, which would allow the company to sink the savings into further R&D. The move would also allow Intel to close the gap with rival AMD's manufacturing advantages in a more critical, timely manner.
45 Comments on TrendForce: TSMC to Mass-Produce Select Intel Products, CPUs Starting 2021
Intel better fix their shit.
But, at least this way they can remain relevant.That's because when you hear "10nm" you immediately know who I am talking about. It's a meme.
Demand for consoles won't decrease; especially when the eventual refresh comes out (as those holdouts with older PS4/X1 "Pro" systems might finally choose to upgrade then, if they haven't already for one game or another). Demand for AMD and NVIDIA products won't decrease as long as they can continue to push out their product (especially in the real high-margin markets; the OEMs, mobile, and business/enterprise sector), and while GPUs should stabilize as demand gradually declines, there will likely be a new generation of GPUs to produce when those fabs are completed and AMD and Nvidia (and even Intel) would love more of that capacity to try and get more out sooner than later. There's also the commercial/enterprise market and the specialized GPU/Accelerators that could take up any slack from regular consumer GPUs too. Apple too, being a high-paying client, would love some extra capacity, even if they aren't as affected by product shortages as the other major TSMC customers.
What then? Price hikes would be the least of worries.
Nothing is impossible, that's for sure.
Admittedly TSMC has some fabs outside of Taiwan, but none of them are cutting edge and some of them are even in China...
It's not likely to happen tomorrow, but Emperor Xi has said that he will re-unite Taiwan with China so the threat is very real.
this and 14nm(+^n)
This news looks more like a stock influencing one, TBH.
And 3nm in 2022/2023? Kidding, right?
As far as I know, Intel will have 6nm chipsets with Alder Lake. But 5nm TSMC i3 cpus...sounds a bit far fetched.
If this is true, then the management of Intel has really really screwed it up, if they are going to the way of shutting down their fabs.
Here is a blast from the past. Intel has used outside fabs for non-CPU parts many times in the past.
Oddly you seem to be worried about things that have no direct impact to your life but other things that do have direct impact don't seem to bother you at all , GO FIGURE ...............
TSMC is de facto primary fab in the world and controls more than half of market share. They probably have the most experience and technical know-how in the world, possibly only Samsung can be compare at all.
The relations between PRC and Taiwan have been deteriorating for years now, the military buildup is quite onesided (for obvious reasons, I hope) and increasingly accelerating by PRC. There is more and more agressive rhetoric coming from Beijing about "finally solving the question" of the island. USA, the main supporter of Taiwan, is sinking in internal issues and it is questionable how much actual military support they would provide, considering that even standard weapon sales are mirred in political controversy each time. It is likely that the times of demonstrative sailing by carrier battlegroups through the strait as was done during Third Taiwan Strait Crisis are over.
Invasion by China would literally destroy the CPU (and other component) market, drive prices somewhere halfway between Earth and Sun and potentially give China control over said market (if Taiwan does not destroy factories, in which case bye bye new CPUs for years (literally)). There are far from enough fabs outside Taiwan to offset this and new ones are built slowly and sparingly.
Not to mention the whole nasty business that is war...
Oh yes I do have a point. Does your "USA bad, NSA is spying on us all, it is all propaganda about China" thropes have a point? Well, others can decide that, but I do not think so.
In point of fact, they have a legal fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder value. If you think Samsung, AMD, TSMC, etc etc are any different you are misguided.
The problem with Intel is that they were short-sighted, and in the end that led to a failure to maximize shareholder value. That resulted in the ouster of the old CEO and eventually several VPs over technology areas.
As far as AMD goes, they are not the ones that are beating Intel. TSMC is doing that. There is a big distinction there.
I pointed out at one time it would be interesting if Intel simply sucked up a big chunk of TSMCs capacity. AMD does not own fabs or process tech. Intel can outbid them, as can Apple and Qualcomm. Intel can also outproduce TSMC, who is not dedicated to AMD.
It sounds like ever increasing pricing pressure on AMD's ability to have someone fab their products is going to be real.
I also pointed out that Nvidia going with Samsung was genius. A lot of people laughed at that, because Samsung 8nm is inferior to TSMC 7nm.
Well, they're not laughing now. Nvidia is in a great spot with Samsung, who has tremendous production capacity with the capital, manpower, and skill to bring much more online. AMD, not so much, just a lot of paper launches and no production capacity.
Intel could also throw the towel on it's manufacturing process and just pay a boatload of money to TSMC to license future techs. The capacity in Intel's fabs can warranty high volume for Intel itself, while TSMC will be making a nice income without having to see it's customers fighting for wafers or having to rush to build more fabs.
This is the first time in the last 3-4 years that I really worry about AMD's future.
See this is the trully fascinating part with you or so to say peoples like you , this persistence to believe into distorted realities while on the same breath rejecting the only and one factual reality . Let's enter into your distorted reality and asume that indeed China does invades Taiwan , please tell me now : What in this world makes you think that it's in Chinas interest to change anything to how current Taiwanese governance does business with the rest of the world ? It's not like mainlad China is already the biggest supplier of this world and does already business with the rest of the world in perfectly fine and respectable terms .... right ... RIGHT ????
Do you even sense how delusional and out of touch with reality your perception of the world is ? Of course you don't , otherwise you wouldn't be here making this ludicrous arguments !Did that guy just called factual events such as NSA spying on the entire world and forcing American tech companies to implement backdoors in their products , ... '' thropes '' .... :roll::roll::roll: right you heard it here folks , NSA spying is just fake news . This last sentence of yours put's the final nail on this argument coffin , i can't argue with peoples who reject facts !