They aren’t going to be competitive in their foundry with them laying off so many experienced operators. I work at a fab down the street from intel and our hiring classes went from 10 every other week to 20-30 now.
independantiste@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Dangerous game considering Intel should be coming up with their 18A node pretty soon now, and it will supposedly be competitive with TSMC’s 3nm or 2nm according to rumors. They will only need to compete in price, and if they are competitive in performance, and TSCM is increasing their prices so much, it would be a good way for Intel to take some of that market share.
Entropywins@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Crashumbc@lemmy.world 1 month ago
They can drop the price the day Intel actually puts a chip on the market… They’re capturing maximum profit while they can.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
you have practical, working tsmc chips plus next-gen r&d versus theoretical chips from Intel, a company that has not fared well over 30 years of trying to catch up with TSMC.
they’re not worried yet.
Badeendje@lemmy.world 1 month ago
And with the issues intel had with their processors…
tal@lemmy.today 1 month ago
It does sound like most of that was not actually manufacturing, but design.
Cort@lemmy.world 1 month ago
If you’re referring to the 13&14th Gen chips then yes, Intel is saying it’s on the software side.
But if you’re talking about 10th Gen chips that took forever to get out of the gate due to issues with sub 14nm lithography, then no it’s a hardware issue. Intel has had issues over recent years with actual die shrinks.
GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Intel has only been behind for the last 7 years or so, because they were several years delayed in rolling out their 10nm node. Before 14nm, Intel was always about about 3 years ahead of TSMC. Intel got leapfrogged at that stage because it struggled to implement the finFET technology that is necessary for progressing beyond 14nm.
The forward progress of semiconductor manufacturing tech isn’t an inevitable march towards improvement. Each generation presents new challenges, and some of them are quite significant.
In the near future, the challenge is in certain three dimensional gate structures more complicated than finFET (known as Gate All Around FETs) and in backside power delivery. TSMC has decided to delay introducing those techniques because of the complexity and challenges while they squeeze out a few more generations, but it remains to be seen whether they’ll hit a wall where Samsung and/or Intel leapfrog them again. Or maybe Samsung or Intel hit a wall and fall even further behind. Either way, we’re not yet at a stage where we know what things look like beyond 2nm, so there’s still active competition for that future market.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
“Intel has only been behind for the last 7 years or so”
what is your source for this?
at what point was intel even at par with tsmc in semiconductor/fab quality and production?
as far as I understand, Intel has never met the fabrication technology or demand that TSMC has, but has been playing catch up for three decades.
I’m very willing to read a source article refuting that.
as for the article you’ve linked, it’s a more technical iteration of the “yea but maybe?” articles.
There’s zero refutation of tsmc dominance and zero evidence of a true emergent competitor.
“but it remains to be seen whether they’ll hit a wall where Samsung and/or Intel leapfrog them again. Or maybe Samsung or Intel hit a wall and fall even further behind. Either way, we’re not yet at a stage where we know what things look like beyond 2nm”
their point is “heyvwe don’t know”, but if tsmc next-gen R&D and production fails, and if another company is able to close the distance between themselves and tsmc’s current held advantage, and if that theoretical company is then able to pull ahead with theoretical technologies, then TSMC might not be in first place in terms of semiconductor manufacturing.
“but what if…” isn’t exactly a compelling or relevatory argument.
That’s just saying “what if” a whole bunch of times.
if a new zero emissions concrete dropped tomorrow and if a company secured the funding to produce it commercially and if they partnered with a next-gen 3d-printing company and real estate developer exclusively committed to low-income housing, then they could build a national chain of economically viable housing units.
None of that has happened and there’s no evidence of it happening, so it’s just a hypothetical series of events.
RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Good article, thanks