Intel Kicks off 10nm Trial Production

With just a year to go until we’re set to receive Cannon Lake, Intel has finally started the preparations for their next generation chips. Right now, Intel is still utilizing the 14nm process for Kaby Lake this year which will be the third generation of chips on the process. Next year, with Cannon Lake, Intel will switch over to their new 10nm process. Over the weekend, Intel has announced that they’re begun trial production for their 10nm process, a notable milestone.

Previous to Haswell-Refresh, we’ve gotten only 2 generations of CPUs per process node under Tick Tock. Now with Process, Architecture, and Optimization, we’re getting a total of three which is why 10nm is taking longer. This gives Intel more time to work out the process as well as better pay off the ever increasing research and development costs. This has paid off with 10nm starting trial production right on time, with the kinks in the process worked out enough to start producing chips.

With Moore’s law dead, it’s taking ever longer for new process nodes to arrive on the market. Intel originally planned for 10nm to arrive in 2015 but obviously, that goal has been unattainable. Those two years have been taking up by delays in both the 14nm process and 10nm process which necessitated Haswell-Refresh and Kaby Lake to step in. Hopefully, 10nm will be worth the wait as 14nm was with Skylake.

Of course, we still expect a bit of a wait for 10nm chips since we’ve still got Kaby Lake which has just started shipping. It will be interesting to see what this new Optimization phase will bring as Kaby Lake is the first to fall under this category. Don’t worry though if it turns out disappointing as trial production now hopefully means no delays for 10nm chips next year.