We’ve addressed this topic a number of times already, with the problems at 10nm, Intel is running out of fabrication space on 14nm, and they have a lot of processors and chipsets on that node. The fabrication shortage at 14nm means fewer processors fabricated, resulting in processors shortages on a global scale. And that drives up prices.
A few days ago we already reported that the current Coffee lake (Core 8000 series) is currently suffering from increased prices, some procs even have risen 40 to 60% in price, overall for the higher end product it’s 15 to 25% of an increase. The news on this keeps piling up as Compal (the company who fabs laptops for Acer, Apple, Dell, HP and Lenovo) has mentioned that these shortages are likely to last way into mid-2019, and that is a mighty long time.
Intel now has moved back chipset fabrication of for example the H310C chipset back to 22nm, just to free up space at 14nm. Intel also outsourced some production towards TSMC. The problems now also have moved into he data-centers, as 14nm Xeons and respective chipsets are facing shortages as well. Basically the shortages are not solely the effect of issues on the 10nm node, worldwide higher demand for chips is the main cause, and in fact maybe even a luxury problem for Intel. Intel also has extended desktop processors in 14nm, for example, the pending Core 9000 series will also be based on the very same 14nm fabrication node. Intel is simply sitting at this 14nm process longer than it expected as well, btw 10nm production has been postponed until the end of 2019.
Weirdly enough this all is still good news for Intel, as they can sell as much as they can deliver. It’s just on the consumer and business side that due to these shortages, prices go up.
