Intel announces cancellation of 20A process node for Arrow Lake, goes with external nodes instead, likely TSMC
In a surprise move, Intel announced today that it no longer plans to use its own 'Intel 20A' process node with its upcoming Arrow Lake processors for the consumer market. Instead, it will use external nodes, likely from partner TSMC, for all of Arrow Lake's chip components. Intel's only manufacturing responsibilities for the Arrow Lake processors will be packaging the externally manufactured chiplets into the final processor.
The announcement comes as Intel embarks on a vast restructuring in the wake of troubling financial results last quarter. The company continues to lay off 15,000 workers, among the largest workforce reductions in its 56-year history.
The node change comes after Intel initially demoed a wafer of Arrow Lake processors fabbed on the 20A node at its Innovation 2023 event, which indicated the chips were already far along in the development cycle. At the time, Intel said Arrow Lake would come to market in 2024. Since then, industry rumors pointed to the 20A node only being used for a subset of the Arrow Lake family, while the remainder would use a TSMC node.
Intel says its crucial next-gen 'Intel 18A' node remains on track for launch in 2025. It has now shifted its engineering resources from 20A to the newer 18A node, which the company says was spurred by the strength of the yield metrics for 18A. Intel again noted that it had reached a sub-0.40 D0 defect density (def/cm^2) for 18A, a critical measurement of the yield rate for a process node. A process node is usually considered production-worthy and healthy once D0 reaches 0.5 or below.
