US
1 MIN READ TIME

Intel’s process push

INTEL’S CEO, Pat Gelsinger, is an engineer, and when he got the job back in 2021, he had an engineer’s solution to the company’s floundering development schedule. He released a roadmap that promised five nodes in four years. The plan hasn’t gone entirely smoothly: that Raptor Lake refresh wasn’t part of the deal, Intel 4 barely made it on time, and both the 20A and 18A ‘Angstrom era’ nodes seem in the balance.

In a few weeks, we’ll have another roadmap. Intel plans to get a trillion transistors on a ‘package’ by 2030. The company still plans to jump to the cutting-edge in barely four years. This year, we’ll allegedly see Intel 3 in volume, with 20A production supposedly by the end of the year. Part of the strategy has always been to build chips for others. TSMC is about to move into serious 3nm volumes—the target is apparently 80 per cent of all production this year to be its second generation N3E chips. Apple pretty much bought the first generation for its A17 Pro and M3 processors.

Anyway, TSMC’s roadmap has been updated to 2030. It shows 2nm in 2025, 14A by around 2028, followed by 10A in 2030. It also talks of trillions of transistors on stacked packages, and up to 200 billion on a chip. Intel’s plans come courtesy of ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, the EUV 0.55 NA, which is what you need to really move into Angstroms rather than nanometers. Pundits don’t expect TSMC to switch for a while yet. If Gelsinger’s promises looked like hubris, the next 12 months will be the real test. If Intel can hit its targets, it could be the most advanced chip producer in the world. But failure could be existential for the firm.

Unlock this article and much more with
You can enjoy:
Enjoy this edition in full
Instant access to 600+ titles
Thousands of back issues
No contract or commitment
Try for 99c
SUBSCRIBE NOW
30 day trial, then just $9.99 / month. Cancel anytime. New subscribers only.


Learn more
Pocketmags Plus
Pocketmags Plus

This article is from...


View Issues
Maximum PC
February 2024
VIEW IN STORE

Other Articles in this Issue


editorial
SUPER GPUs
Guy Cocker AS I WRITE THIS, I’ve just
QUICKSTART
Nvidia goes Super
We’ve been expecting you
OLD MEDIA SUES AI
THE NEW YORK TIMES has become the first
GOOGLE KILLS TRACKERS
ABOUT ONE PER CENT of Chrome users—that’s 30
Tech Triumphs and Tragedies
A monthly snapshot of what’s good and bad in tech
MSI CHOOSES INTEL TO RIVAL STEAM DECK
Behold the new Claw
OLED MONITORS GET UPGRADES
You know you want one
New Windows, same files
A Windows installation can get bloated. Wouldn’t you
Apple’s VR gamble
Apple has confirmed a launch date of February
Nvidia RTX 40-series Super models take the runway
NVIDIA’S RTX 40-SERIES Ada Lovelace GPUs have had a rocky reception, mostly on account of their significantly higher generational prices, reduced memory interface widths, and reliance on DLSS 3 frame generation to make performance look better.
THE LIST
THE BEST WEBCAMS
Is Intel’s roadmap for real?
BY THE TIME you read this, Intel will have rolled out a whole new roadmap, the next waypoint on its journey to renewed technological dominance. Except I can’t help but notice that the company hasn’t come close to delivering on its existing roadmap. You know, the one that has Intel delivering five new chip production nodes in four years?
LETTERS
DOCTOR
THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES...
LETTERS
WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON...
THE BUILDS
THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES...
MAXIMUM PC
THE 14th GEN i7 IT X BUILD
Just how much cooling do you need for the Core i7-14700K, asks Zak Storey
PICKING PARTS
CPU INTEL CORE I7-14700K Intel’s Core i7-14700K is
PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT
LENGTH OF TIME: 1-2 hours DIFFICULTY: Medium So
MANY BUILDS ONE MONSTER
THE HYDRA IS, without a doubt, one heck
INTEL’S 14th GEN, A RECAP
RAPTOR LAKE IS OVER, WHAT’S NEXT? INTEL’S RAPTOR
UPSCALING SHOWDOWN
DLSS, FSR, & XESS
THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO PODMAN
Discover a new, more secure way to run containers with Nick Peers
MIGR ATING FROM DOCKER
If you’ve been happily setting up Docker containers
COMMAND-LINE USAGE
Recreating containers using Podman Desktop is a faff.
TROUBLESHOOT PROBLEMS
Podman is a relatively new product, and is
SET UP A REVERSE PROXY
Many services you set up work best when
RASPBERRY Pi5
Your next desktop PC for $60
CENTERFOLD
PERFORMANCE GEAR LAID BARE
Run Windows on your Apple Silicon Mac for free
Boot Camp may have got the boot, but it’s still possible to run Windows applications on macOS. Darien Graham-Smith finds out how
R&D
HOW TO STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES TO IMPROVING YOUR PC
TIP OF THE MONTH STOP WINDOWS RESTARTING ON
Browse the web your way with Vivaldi
YOU’LL NEED THIS
Secure your Secrets with VeraCrypt
YOU’LL NEED THIS
Use Bitwarden to store your passkeys
YOU’LL NEED THIS
Share files from PC to phone for free
YOU’LL NEED THIS
LAB NOTES
JEREMY LAIRD, CONTRIBUTOR
IN THE LAB
Intel Core i7-14700K
Is it a Core i9 or a Core i7?
Steam Deck OLED
This is what handheld PC gaming is meant to be
RCA Evolution Premium M27PG135F
Blast from the past
Hy te Y70 Touch
Almost perfect, but not quite
MSI MEG Z790 ACE MA X
The budget high-end Z790 option… sort of
Asus ZenScreen Ink MB14AHD
A portable touchscreen for the traveling creative mind
32GB XPG Lancer Blade RGB DDR5
Does memory speed matter?
Sony H9 Wireless Noise Cancelling Gaming Headset
That’s legitimately its name
WD Black SN770M PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD
Tiny package, big speeds, massive temperatures
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
An often unremarkable attempt at a metroidvania
Microsof t Clipchamp vs Premiere Rush
There can be only one video editing winner
Chat
X
Pocketmags Support