Alongside Intel’s sizable announcement right this moment relating to their manufacturing roadmap over the following half-decade, the corporate can be asserting their first main buyer for his or her third-party foundry service, IFS. And in an instance of how Intel’s entry into the contract fab enterprise goes to make for some unusual bedfellows, it seems that main buyer is Qualcomm.
Per Intel’s announcement, Intel and Qualcomm are partnering as much as get Qualcomm merchandise on Intel’s 20A course of, one of many firm’s most superior (and farthest-out) course of node. The first of Intel’s “Ångström” course of nodes, 20A is due in 2024 and will probably be the place Intel first implements Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors, one of many main manufacturing expertise milestones on Intel’s new roadmap.
Given that 20A isn’t due out for one more three years, neither firm is saying rather more in regards to the partnership at this level – we’re speaking about chip designs which are nonetheless of their earliest phases – however even having the ability to identify a serious buyer like Qualcomm is an enormous deal for Intel. Not solely does it present that one other main trade participant has a level of religion in what Intel is attempting to perform with its silicon lithography expertise, but it surely helps to validate Intel’s efforts to open up into the contract fab enterprise.
Meanwhile, an announcement like this opens the door to every kind of hypothesis over simply what Qualcomm will probably be constructing over at Intel. Qualcomm is finest recognized for his or her cell SoCs, and the corporate already has important expertise utilizing a number of fabs as a buyer of each TSMC and Qualcomm. So it could be that Qualcomm is seeking to construct a mainstream cell SoC or two at Intel as a technique to get expertise working with Intel and show that Intel’s fabs will meet their wants. Alternatively, Qualcomm could also be seeking to benefit from Intel’s PC-tuned manufacturing strains to provide Nuvia-infused laptop computer SoCs – which might imply Intel can be straight producing competing chips.
There are a whole lot of prospects right here over the long-run, although within the short-run it’s probably that Qualcomm goes to play issues conservatively. So suffice it to say, will probably be attention-grabbing to see simply what Qualcomm is utilizing their rival’s fabs for in a number of years.
Qualcomm is happy in regards to the breakthrough RibbonFET and PowerVia applied sciences coming in Intel 20A. We’re additionally happy to have one other modern foundry accomplice enabled by IFS that may assist the U.S. fabless trade to carry its merchandise to an onshore manufacturing web site.
-Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, Qualcomm
