Intel factories are all set to start producing Qualcomm Inc. chips, as per an announcement by the company on Monday. Intel Inc. has laid out a roadmap to the effect, as it plans to catch up to rival producers like industry giants Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd., latest by 2025. This move comes in the wake of the firm’s efforts to gain back its position as the world leader in the production of the smallest and fastest of chips.
In the Face of Competition
In its statement, the tech biggie also said that Amazon Inc. too, is soon going to become the latest addition to the list of customers at its foundry chip business. This could help it work towards competing in the real sense, with the Taiwanese and South Korean companies, who have fueled the chip productions at Intel’s rivals, including Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc., thanks to their foundry manufacturing services, which bring to life the designs created by Nvidia and AMD. This new move could help Intel reclaim its lead in the industry by 2025, if the statements made by the firm are to be believed.
The US-based firm has also unveiled five separate sets of chipmaking technologies, which will gradually be introduced over the next four years. Among these can be found the first new design for transistors in a decade that Intel plans on rolling out. Expected to be launched by 2025, the new design will reportedly be tapping a “new generation” of machines from the Netherlands-based ASML. These machines use a technology called “extreme ultraviolet lithography,” which is known to project chip designs onto silicon.
Manufacturing and Packaging
Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger informed Reuters that they have laid out “a whole lot of details” to investors about their plans. Moreover, the group will also be changing the name that it gives to its chipmaking technologies. One can soon expect to hear names like “Intel 7,” akin to those that are used by Samsung and TSMC.
All in all, Intel factories will soon be developing Qualcomm chips, where the phone chip market leader will be relying on the 20A chipmaking process to reduce the power consumed by its chips. Amazon, on the other hand, will be using Intel’s packaging technology for stacking its chiplets or tiles. However, it won’t be using Intel’s chipmaking sensibilities, for now anyway, and instead, will rely on its own chips for Amazon Web Services.
Source: CNBC
