Intel Foundry Services Archives - Gizmochina

Microsoft teams with Intel on 18A process chip development

Debasish — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 05:17:42 +0000

At the IFS Direct Connect 2024 conference hosted by Intel, Microsoft CEO Nadella announced plans to utilize Intel’s 18A process for creating its own chips. Nadella emphasized the importance of having reliable access to cutting-edge semiconductor technology to drive platform changes benefiting various industries. Microsoft’s collaboration with Intel’s foundry marks a significant step in this direction, as highlighted in a press release quoting Nadella’s speech. This strategic partnership aims to harness high-performance semiconductors to transform productivity across organizations.

Intel Foundry Systems is preparing itself beyond Core Ultra’s 4nm node for the ‘angstrom era’

In line with its efforts to enhance chip capabilities and reduce reliance on external manufacturers, Microsoft is reportedly developing a new network card. This initiative is part of Microsoft‘s broader strategy to optimize performance for its self-developed Maia AI server chip while potentially mitigating dependency on chip design giant Nvidia. The network card bears resemblance to Nvidia‘s ConnectX-7, which is bundled with its GPU offerings. The development of this network card, however, is anticipated to be a meticulous process, likely spanning over a year. If successful, the new network card could expedite model training for OpenAI on Microsoft servers and drive cost efficiencies.

The announcement at the IFS Direct Connect 2024 conference underscores Microsoft’s commitment to innovation and self-reliance in semiconductor technology. By partnering with Intel’s foundry and adopting its 18A process, Microsoft aims to ensure access to state-of-the-art semiconductor solutions tailored to its specific requirements. This move not only enhances Microsoft’s chip capabilities but also signifies a strategic shift in the company’s approach towards semiconductor procurement and technology development.

Furthermore, Microsoft’s foray into developing a new network card aligns with its broader vision of enhancing AI infrastructure and optimizing performance for specialized workloads. By investing in proprietary solutions like the Maia AI server chip and accompanying network infrastructure, Microsoft seeks to bolster its competitiveness in the AI and cloud computing domains. This strategic initiative reflects Microsoft’s long-term commitment to innovation and underscores its ambition to shape the future of technology through cutting-edge semiconductor advancements.

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Intel backs RISC-V and future disruptive tech, sets up $1 billion fund

Sean — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 11:36:10 +0000

Intel has recently announced that it is setting up a new fund that will help startups in developing new technologies from its Intel Foundry Services (IFS). This billion dollar fund is being offered to both large and small firms that are working on innovative chip tech that will not be limited by ISAs (instruction set architectures).

As per the official announcement (Via TomsHardware), the funds will help startups that are seeking to develop disruptive tech (technology that has a major impact on the market/industry) while also reducing the time it takes for these technologies to make it to the consumer market. Notably, the chip making giant won’t be limiting architecture for firms using its IFS. While Team Blue has been a major figure in the x86 architecture, the 1 billion US Dollar fund will embrace other instruction sets as well. This includes the x86, ARM, and even RISC-V.

The first two are known architectures that are used in PCs and smartphones, but the latter is an open sourced and free platform that has been rising in popularity in recent times. In other words, Intel will include RISC-V under its IFS fund to bring in more customers. Furthermore, the chipmaker is also betting on development of modular designs on chip architecture through advanced 3D packaging technologies. In simpler terms, it is expecting the semiconductor industry to shift towards chips that use multiple ISA in a single chip.

RISC-V based SiFive chipset

Intel CEO, Pat Gelsinger, stated that “Foundry customers are rapidly embracing a modular design approach to differentiate their products and accelerate time to market. Intel Foundry Services is well positioned to lead this major industry inflection. With our new investment fund and open chiplet platform, we can help drive the ecosystem to develop disruptive technologies across the full spectrum of chip architectures.” The sizeable fund will be streamlined in three aspects:

Equity investments in disruptive startups.
Strategic investments to accelerate partner scale up.
Ecosystem investments to develop disruptive capabilities supporting IFS customers.

Intel will now manufacture chips for Qualcomm; aims to lead foundry market by 2025

Jeet — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 02:13:31 +0000

Intel has today announced Qualcomm as the first major customer for its new Intel Foundry Services business. Qualcomm, which is powering most of the premium Android smartphones with its Snapdragon lineup of chips, will have its chips manufactured by Intel in the coming years.

For manufacturing chips, Intel will be using its upcoming 20A process which will use new transistor technology to help reduce chip power consuption. As of now, there’s no information about which products from Qualcomm will be manufactured by Intel and when the Intel-made Qualcomm products will arrive in the market.

Apart from Qualcomm, Intel has also announced Amazon Web Services as another new customer for the foundry chip business. However, Amazon won’t be using Intel’s chip-making technology but will use packaging technology. It is basically a process of assembling chips and “chiplets” or “tiles” by stacking them up.

Intel 20A will rely on two new technologies — RibbonFET and PowerVia. RibbonFET is Intel’s first new transistor architecture since FinFET in 2011. It delivers faster transistor switching speeds while achieving the same drive current as multiple fins in a smaller footprint.

On the other hand, PowerVia is Intel’s industry-first implementation of backside power delivery, which optimizes signal transmission by eliminating the need for power routing on the front side of the wafer. Also, Starting as early as 2025, the company will tap a new generation of machines from ASML that use extreme ultraviolet lithography.

The company is also changing the naming method for its technologies. Intel 7 offers 10-15% performance-per-watt increase versus Intel 10nm SuperFin, based on FinFET transistor optimizations. It will be used in products like Alder Lake for clients in 2021 and Sapphire Rapids for the data center.

The Intel 4 uses EUV lithography to print small features using ultra-short wavelength light. It is expected to offer around 20% performance-per-watt increase, along with area improvements. It will be ready for production in the second half of 2022 for products shipping in 2023.

Intel 3 leverages further FinFET optimizations and increased EUV to deliver an approximately 18% performance-per-watt increase over Intel 4. It will be ready to begin manufacturing products in the second half of 2023.

With these new customers and the latest technologies, Intel is expecting to regain its market lead by 2025. In the foundry services business, the company will be competing against market leaders like TSMC and Samsung.