Intel's comeback appears on track: Gelsinger says 18A process node performance is 'a little bit ahead' of TSMC's N2, but Intel's process arrives a year earlier

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Despite TSMC's claims, Intel is confident in its 18A process tech.

logic technology lead
(Image credit: Intel)

Intel has quite literally bet the company on the rapid development of its production nodes as it looks to deliver five new nodes in a mere four years. Intel is now poised to bring its 20A (2nm-class) and 18A (1.8nm-class) fabrication technologies to market ahead of competing processes from TSMC and Samsung Foundry. The company's chief executive, Pat Gelsinger, believes that Intel 18A's tech — which will be used for mass products in the second half of 2024 — is 'a little bit ahead' of TSMC's N2 (2nm-class), which is coming in the second half of 2025. Intel will also make this tech available to its foundry (IFS) customers, providing the company with a strategic advantage in both its own products and its foundry operations.

"I have a good transistor; I have great power delivery," Gelsinger said in an interview with Barron's. "I think I am a little bit ahead of N2, TSMC's next process technology in time."

I think I am a little bit ahead of N2.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger

Intel's 20A and 18A process technologies bring two major innovations: gate-all-around (GAA) RibbonFET transistors and PowerVia backside power delivery network (BSPDN). 20A is projected to be a relatively short-lived node, allowing Intel to learn all the peculiarities of GAA and BSPDN; Intel expects to re-establish unquestioned leadership in the semiconductor industry with 18A. Clearly, the company's hopes are pinned on this node.

Intel now says that 18A silicon goes to the fab in Q1 2024, which is in line with expectations that the first products based on the process technology will be available in the second half of 2024. In contrast, TSMC is set to start making chips on its N2 process technology sometime in the second half of 2025. Additionally, while TSMC's N2 features nanosheet GAA transistors, it still uses less-performant traditional power delivery.

TSMC still believes that its performance-enhanced N3P technology, due in 2024, will offer comparable power, performance, and transistor density to Intel 18A, and it claims that N2 will be better across the board than N3P and 18A.

But Gelsinger believes that 18A will offer considerable benefits compared to N2, particularly when it comes to performance — enabled by both enhanced RibbonFET and backside power.

"I think everybody is looking at the transistor of TSMC’s N2 versus our 18A," said Gelsinger. "It is not clear that one is dramatically better than the other. We will see who is best. But the backside power delivery, everybody says Intel, score. You are years ahead of the competition. That is powerful. That is meaningful. It gives better area efficiency for silicon, which means lower cost. It gives better power delivery, which means higher performance."

Gelsinger also implied that TSMC's N2 could end up being a very expensive production node, which will give Intel's 20A and 18A a chance to land foundry orders from customers seeking higher cost-efficiency without hurting corporate margins.

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Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • kjfatl
    This is good news.
    Competition from Intel will keep TSMC and Samsung from stagnating.
    Reply
  • usertests
    kjfatl said:
    This is good news.
    Competition from Intel will keep TSMC and Samsung from stagnating.
    I'd be surprised if TSMC changes its plans significantly because of Intel, and Samsung is just holding on for dear life.

    What it could do is keep prices down, if Intel has customers.
    Reply
  • Kashmir74
    Intel's says this, Nvidia says that, AMD says this... What a bunch of big-mouthed trash-talkers!
    Reply
  • sivaseemakurthi
    The only thing Intel is lacking will be credibility considering their abysmal track record since 10nm. It may take a few generations before customers start trusting them.
    Reply
  • endocine
    sivaseemakurthi said:
    The only thing Intel is lacking will be credibility considering their abysmal track record since 10nm. It may take a few generations before customers start trusting them.
    exactly, the real products that are available to buy aren't exactly impressive, and talk is cheap
    Reply
  • kjfatl
    None of Intel's 5 new processes are likely to remain stagnant. It will take a few years to optimize each of them. I would expect 1 or more of them to be phased out completely with new designs using a different, more cost effective processes In addition, Intel has 2 future unnamed processes that will go online in then next 4 or 5 years. This is nothing new or very different than what is done at other semiconductor fabs. The result is likely to have Intel manufacturing 20 or more flavors parts. The chance of success is high. The chance of disasters on one or more nodes is significant. Every process that Intel has is likely to match a similar process manufactured by TSMC.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    Chances are pretty high that Intel 4 is a one and done and won't be used again (at least by Intel), but I expect Intel 3 to be around for a long time. Barring manufacturing problems with 18A I'm assuming 20A will be similar to Intel 4. Intel should have a pretty big technology advantage with RibbonFET (gate-all-around) and PowerVia (back-side power delivery) which could make up for some density disadvantages.

    It will be interesting to see if IFS decides to name node optimizations for branding purposes or stick with the same naming as Intel has in the past.

    Hoping that Samsung can get their manufacturing squared away since they got GAA working first, but don't seem to have been able to scale it. Having three leading edge manufacturers should do wonders for availability and keeping pricing somewhat stable.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    Kashmir74 said:
    Intel's says this, Nvidia says that, AMD says this... What a bunch of big-mouthed trash-talkers!

    OTOH ...

    They are all investing multiple Billions in Fabs producing actual products used by Billions and sold for even more Billions more at generous margins.

    It's possible they are not talking enough but even more likely that more people should be listening and responding in an intelligent way.

    In our social media age Pericles' speeches to the Athenians and the Lincoln Douglas debates would probably be reduced to Tiktok shorts, humorous memes, and "sick burns".
    Reply
  • Kashmir74
    Bro, you are gone if you think these companies are being generous. Nothing I can say to help you there. But, as for what I was talking about, I was referring the fact that everyday an article comes up that's about some dude working for either one of these companies, trash-talking the competition. I get it, but it's just very funny to watch. And listening to them? You can't tell how good a product is by listening to the person selling it to you, or its competitor. Nothing that can come out of them has any value.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    Kashmir74 said:
    Bro, you are gone if you think these companies are being generous.
    Generous for them, not generous for the customer...
    That's what he was talking about, the attention of people is so small these days that they don't even make an effort to understand what the person is saying and are already trying to cancel them for it.
    Reply