Intel has announced that its cutting-edge 18A process is now "ready," revealing that tape-outs are expected to occur by H1 2025 and will likely disrupt the competition.
Expectations With Intel's 18A Are Pretty High As It Might Prove To Be A Massive Breakthrough For The Foundry Division
Well, for those unaware, the semiconductor industry hype is all around Team Blue and its foundry division, given that it has been the center of talk for political leaders and experts. Apart from discussions on the company's future, one of the biggest highlights for Intel in recent weeks has been the progress it has made on the 18A process. Now, according to the official announcement, it has been revealed that Intel's 18A is indeed in action and is soon ready to debut into the markets.
The journey for Team Blue towards coming to this stage hasn't been easy, and it won't be wrong to say that the state of IFS is one of the major achievements of former CEO Pat Gelsinger and his "IDM 2.0" strategy. Intel Foundry saw massive roadblocks in adoption from the industry, particularly for its processes like Intel 4 (7nm), which significantly downplayed the division's performance. However, 18A was the project that was expected to provide the IFS with a comeback, and it seems like this looks pretty close.
We have discussed Intel's 18A node several times in the past. One of the more monumental achievements of the process is the utilization of BSPDN (Backside Power Delivery), which is said to move the power delivery process to the backside of the wafer. Moreover, with RibbonFET GAA technology and impressive chip densities, 18A is slated to be an arch-rival to some of the top processes from competitors like TSMC, putting IFS directly into the mainstream markets.
When we can see 18A in action, it is rumored that the first formal integration will be done with Intel's upcoming Panther Lake mobile SoCs along with Clearwater Forest Xeon server CPUs. Moreover, it was recently rumored that Intel's next-gen Celestial dGPUs will feature a process from Intel Foundry as well, which might be 18A. Hence, in-house adoption will be a top priority for the company.
For now, we aren't aware of partners integrating 18A with their product portfolio, but it is said that Broadcom and many other companies are in the race. Given that the tape-out has been announced for H1 2025, we expect the process to come into action by H2 2025, given that Team Blue has become successful in nailing the yield rates and chip integration.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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