Reply to post: Process is both Intel's strength and their weakness

Intel's 7nm is busted, chips delayed, may have to use rival foundries to get GPUs out for US govt exascale super

martinusher Silver badge

Process is both Intel's strength and their weakness

Intel has always had their own process for fabicating its parts -- 'process' being the actual methodology of building the wafers. They've been enormously successful but the downside is that this breeds a sort of NIH mindset where its difficult to muster sufficient resources to keep at the front of the pack and difficult to get the company to start leveraging other companies' technologies. They've been in this hole before although most people didn't notice it -- back in the 2000s there was the original processor group churning out incremental improvements to the Pentium 4, faster and hotter and also completly unsuitable for mobile use. They got bailed out that time by a completely different group (based in Israel) that rearchitected the processor ostensibly for mobile use that enabled a big jump performance without running at a dull red heat.

It would be wrenching for the company and its culture to have to admit that it needs to cooperate to survive but its probably a wise decision. Intel has numerous production plants so hopefully they won't just shut them down and outsource as has been fashionable with corporate America but will switch the plants over and maybe become a contract manufacturer for fabless design houses (a TSMC competitor?).

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