Intel’s 7nm chips postponed to 2022
Intel released the 10nm chips after years of delays, but now the company has announced that it is facing problems that will cause delays in the next generation chips with the next 7nm process.
As Intel's Q2 2020 earnings have been announced, "the company's 7nm based CPU product timing is about six months compared to previous expectations", pushing them back from the originally planned arrival at the end of 2021. There will be a delay of at least 2022 due to what Intel CEO Bob Swan called the "flaw mode" in the 7nm process.
Intel says problems with current 7nm production mean that production was one year behind the internal roadmap. However, for some reason, the company says that falling behind the program one year will only result in the six-month market delay mentioned above.
Still, it's not bad news for Intel: the company is launching 11th Generation Tiger Lake chips (based on the company's third generation, 10nm ++ processor) to achieve the 10th Generation Tiger Lake chips series for laptops in 2020.
Intel's actual financial results for the 2nd Quarter were also positive: Intel's Client Computing Group (making processors for laptops and desktops) generated $9.50 billion in revenue, a 7 percent improvement over last year. Intel notes that these strong results stem from increases in laptop sales due to the increase in COVID-19 home-based and learning customers. Intel's second quarter revenue was also $ 19.7 billion, up 20 percent year on year, helping to substantially increase Intel's data center and memory solutions divisions.
