Intel to Reportedly Kill Off 10 nm Process

Intel has been having issues with their new 10 nm processor for years now. A new report from SemiAccurate says that Intel has abandoned the process entirely saying, “Intel just pulled the plug on their struggling 10nm process”.

intel chip

SemiAccurate’s story requires you to have a full professional level subscription to their website, but they do tease us with, “The knifing of 10nm shows that Intel is finally willing to do the right things for the right reasons even if it costs them some short term pain, it is the first adult decision we have seen from the company in several years. Let us walk through the reasons why it is a good thing, from cost to timetables to competitiveness to management changes to potential product roadmaps. It is not a clean, easy or pithy story to pull a sound bite from but it is interesting”.

Intel was actually expected to launch its 10 nm process back in 2015, but delays brought the rise of 14nm, then we saw, 14nm+, and then 14nm++. The full consumer launch of 10nm kept on being pushed back every few months by 6-12 months, with a new launch date being slated for late 2019.

It honestly makes sense for Intel to abandon 10 nm all-together, AMD is weeks away from its 7nm launch with their EPYC processors and next gen Zen 2 will be right around the corner as well. With that AMD will be quite ahead of Intel when it comes to process node leadership, so if Intel does kill off 10 nm what is next?

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