One of the important thing commentaries in regards to the present semiconductor shortages is round the place precisely the bottlenecks are. The conventional interpretation of a semiconductor scarcity implies that not sufficient silicon may be made, however over the previous few months various firms have pointed to post-silicon manufacturing, reminiscent of testing and packaging, inflicting a few of the points. To the most effective of our information, not one of the firms affected by the shortages are particularly pointing at companion firms or particular provide chain areas the place there’s a bottleneck, nonetheless there have been various feedback targeted within the path of packaging, substrates, and the specialist movies concerned for prime efficiency compute.
AnandTech has realized that at its Partner Connect 2021 occasion lately, Intel Chief Revenue Officer Michelle Johnston Holthaus expanded the size to which the provision chain is inflicting the semiconductor scarcity for Intel’s companions. During the occasion Keynote, as a part of a deliberate Q&A session with the host John Kalvin (Intel GM of Scale and Partner Organization), Holthaus expanded on the commentary surrounding Intel’s silicon circulate and the place the provision chain bottlenecks are for Intel and related companions.
Holthaus states that attributable to Intel’s funding over the past three years to extend silicon output on its forefront course of applied sciences, it has doubled its silicon manufacturing, and persevering with to put money into that space of the enterprise. However the business has elevated in PC models by 33%-50% over the previous two years, and different ancillary ecosystem elements are actually briefly provide, together with substrates as beforehand talked about, however Holthaus additionally notes that Wi-Fi modules and show panels are additionally a part of that ecosystem limitation. The firm has loads of silicon ready to be packaged apparently, however companions on the lookout for a whole set of elements for complicated machine integration are having extra issue,
As a part of the dialogue, Holthaus highlights Intel’s multi-decade strategy to working with its element ecosystem companions to drive quantity, nonetheless regardless of Intel rising its silicon volumes by such a big quantity, it could seem that the ecosystem companion funding was not of the identical order of magnitude.
Despite Intel being an built-in system producer (IDM, as CEO Pat Gelsinger is selling) and aiming for full vertical integration, very similar to TSMC and Samsung, Intel continues to be on the whim of components of the provision chain it doesn’t management. While Intel could have investments in these areas of the provision chain, they should be stepped up in step with the remainder of Intel’s enterprise. TSMC’s Chairman Mark Liu stated in a latest 60 Minutes section relating to the present semiconductor scarcity that the timescales for these investments are longer than folks realise – at the moment TSMC can meet the minimal requirement for its clients, however shortages will final for a superb 6-9 months for automotive, for instance.
Intel this week introduced a $3.5 Billion USD funding in its 3D packaging applied sciences in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. However this manufacturing line is for future applied sciences and isn’t anticipated to be operational till late 2022.
The full feedback by Intel CRO Michelle Johnston Holthaus have been transcribed under.
Supply has been a subject since 2019, actually because the finish of 2018. Intel continues to extend our capability by two fold over these years. We’re persevering with to construct increasingly, amd we’re persevering with to extend our investments in CapEx as you heard Pat discuss. The actual factor right here is that demand continues to be sturdy and with COVID and the pandemic it has gotten even stronger.
We’ve seen that the PC has grow to be important to the best way folks work and…
