After a challenging second-quarter earnings call and issues with its Raptor Lake CPUs, Intel has some positive news. The company’s first 18A chips have returned from the fab and successfully booted operating systems. This includes the Panther Lake for PCs and Clearwater Forest server CPUs.
Panther Lake will follow this year’s Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake launches as Intel’s new family of mobile processors, both likely for late 2025. On the other hand, Clearwater Forest will launch as a successor to Sierra Forest all-E-core Xeon parts that were launched back in June.
It will feature updated Darkmont E-cores, a revised version of the Skymont cores debuting with Lunar Lake. It will also integrate Intel’s advanced Foveros Direct 3D die-to-die hybrid bonding packaging technology, demonstrating progress in silicon lithography and advanced packaging.
Kevin O’Buckley, head of Intel Foundry Services, said in a separate announcement that Panther Lake is “yielding well” and its DDR memory controller is running at the target frequency, ahead of schedule on product qualification milestones.
Intel’s 18A process includes two major fabrication advancements: RibbonFET gate-all-around FETs and PowerVia back-side power delivery technology. These innovations aim to enhance power efficiency and clock scaling, marking significant improvements in chip performance.
Intel also released the first full Process Design Kit (PDK) for the 18A process node, a crucial step for attracting customers. This PDK equips customers with the necessary tools to complete their chip designs, aligning them with Intel’s finalized process specifications. The company has spent considerable effort ensuring the PDK meets industry standards and addressing past shortcomings that hindered their contract foundry endeavors.
Hopefully, Intel can attract customers from leading fabs like TSMC and Samsung by providing robust, user-friendly PDKs. The company expects its first external customer chip design to tape out in the first half of 2025, marking a pivotal step in expanding its foundry business.
This development can be seen as the beginning of what Intel hopes will be a growing list of external customers.
