Intel has confirmed today that it will build a third generation of processors on its 14nm process, and that the switch to 10nm manufacturing has been delayed until the second half of 2017, showing the challenges that Moore's Law is under, and bringing an end to the company's "tick-tock" strategy.
Since 2007, Intel has been operating on a staggered release schedule that alternates manufacturing process shrinks—"ticks"—with major microarchitectural improvements—"tocks". For example, the current generation Broadwell processors are a "tick," being the first processors built on the 14nm process. Later this year Intel will release the first Skylake processors; these will continue to be built on 14nm, but will contain a range of architectural improvements, and as such are a "tock."
The original plan was for Skylake to be succeeded by Cannonlake. This was to be the next tick; the processor architecture would be minimally changed, but the manufacturing process would switch to 10nm. In a call to shareholders after announcing its financial results today, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich confirmed that this plan has been derailed. The migration to 14nm was more challenging than anticipated, and there were issues too with the previous migration to 22nm.
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