Skip to main content

Time has run out for Intel's 'tick-tock' CPU production plan

Intel is set to abandon the tick-tock methodology that has shaped its processor manufacturing for the last decade. An annual report made public this week suggests that the company will instead transition to a three-stage process that seems poised to slow the release of new product cycles.

The tick-tock model is built around a system of delivering improvements to manufacturing process technology and micro-architecture in an alternating pattern; the former being referred to as a tick, and the latter being a tock. The schedule has been in place since 2007.

Recommended Videos

This strategy allowed Intel to assert dominance in the field of processors, with each new iteration either providing a major leap forward in technology, or major refinements over the previous model. However, due to the difficulties of maintaining such forward momentum, especially on the manufacturing side, the company is being forced to change its tactics.

Intel is planning to extend the lifespan of its 10nm and 14nm process technologies to three-stage release schedule of process-architecture-optimization, according to the latest annual investor report from the company. At present, this shift is only being discussed in relation to those two processes, but it seems likely to be extended further into the future.

The company’s own explanation of the change in its annual report is as follows:

“We expect to lengthen the amount of time we will utilize our 14nm and our next-generation 10nm process technologies, further optimizing our products and process technologies while meeting the yearly market cadence for product introductions.”

The change in direction comes after years of speculation among industry analysts regarding how long companies can continue aggressive down-sizing of silicon manufacturing. Many difficulties arise as transistors become smaller, and there’s presumably a physical limit to how small they can become. In 2011, for example, Intel started to use 3D transistors, as traditional planar transistors encountered power leakage problems that drastically reduced efficiency on Intel’s cutting edge (for 2011) 22nm production process.

It remains to be seen whether Intel’s change of tactics will allow the firm to maintain its hold over this portion of the computing industry. There’s major competition waiting in the wings from the likes of IBM, Samsung, and TMSC. These companies will leapfrog Intel in production technology if current trends hold.

Brad Jones
Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…
Intel’s desktop CPU road map may have changed
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger presents Intel's roadmap including Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake, and Panther Lake.

Intel's list of best processors is about to expand with the upcoming launch of Arrow Lake-S, also referred to as Intel Core Ultra 200-series for desktops. But what comes next is less certain, and even more so now. According to a post on the Chiphell forums, Intel may have decided to cancel the Arrow Lake-S refresh (Intel Core Ultra 300-series, presumably) that was reportedly slated for sometime next year as a follow-up to this year's initial launch. On the upside, the code name for an upcoming desktop CPU generation was also leaked.

The rumored Arrow Lake-S refresh was never confirmed, but there have been many whispers about it from various leakers. Much like the Raptor Lake refresh, it was never meant to be a groundbreaking update; the neural processing unit (NPU) was the main thing that was going to be updated.

Read more
Intel’s CPU lineups might get even more confusing
An Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chip embedded in a piece of glass.

Intel's list of processors constantly grows, and its whole new naming scheme just got even more confusing. Today's leaks imply that Intel might be working on another Raptor Lake refresh, this time under the Core 200 name. That's right -- just Core 200, without the Ultra. We also spotted some more budget-friendly, previously unheard-of Arrow Lake chips.

With Intel Arrow Lake right around the corner and Lunar Lake CPUs freshly out and available, Intel's got a lot going on in the CPU department right now, and there's more to come. Some non-Ultra Core 200 chips appeared in various Business Applications Performance Corporation (BAPCo) benchmarks, including the Core 7 250U, the Core 7 250H, and the Core 5 220H. There's also the Core 7 Ultra 255H, which is likely an upcoming Arrow Lake-H CPU set to appear inside next-gen laptops.

Read more
Intel just gave up on a plan it laid out years ago
An Intel executive holding a Lunar Lake CPU.

Intel is giving up on its 20A node, or at the very least, it won't show up in any desktop processors. Intel announced that it would shifting resources away from developing 20A toward its smaller 18A node. Intel 20A was the foundation of Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake CPUs. The company says it's now using "external partners" to create Arrow Lake chips, which will likely be chipmaker TSMC.

We first heard about the 20A node in 2021, where the then-new CEO Pat Gelsinger laid out a road map detailing how Intel would move off its storied 14nm node onto smaller manufacturing processes. You could read this shift to 18A as Intel jumping forward to more exciting future technology, but it doesn't bode well given Intel's long-standing road map. The release of 20A was supposed to start the "Angstrom era," as Intel called it, where we would move beyond measuring transistor size in nanometers.

Read more