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on september 25, according to tom's hardware, processor giant intel showcased its xeon chip code-named clearwater forest for the first time at the enterprise tech tour event held in portland, oregon last week. this is also intel's first latest intel 18a process chip, but the chip may not be available until the second half of next year.

△clearwater forest xeon chip, image source: tom's hardware

although intel launched its latest xeon 6 granite rapids data center chip based on intel 3 process at the event, this is the first time since amd epyc was launched in 2017 that intel has increased the number of cores in data center processors to a level comparable to amd's competing products. however, if intel wants to further widen the gap, it still needs to rely on intel's clearwater forest xeon chip based on 18a process.

for pat gelsinger, the helmsman of intel, which is in the midst of a financial crisis, the intel 18a process, which will be mass-produced in the first half of 2025, will be the key to turning things around. not only does intel's next-generation pc and data center processors need to rely on the intel 18a process to return to internal manufacturing and improve product competitiveness, but intel also hopes that intel 18a will surpass tsmc's 2nm process and win more foundry customers.

according to data previously released by intel, the defect density of intel 18a has reached the d0 level, which is less than 0.40 (def/cm^2). however, according to industry insiders who revealed to chip intelligence, d0 less than 0.2 is considered entry-level, and less than 0.1 is required for mass production.

recently, in order to ensure the smooth mass production of intel 8a process in 2025, intel also announced that it would "skip the productization" of intel 20a node and invest engineering resources from intel 20a to intel 18a in advance. the process will adopt the ribbonfet all-around gate transistor architecture and powervia backside power supply technology that have been completed on intel 20a.

prior to this, on august 7, intel announced that the first batch of products built on the intel 18a process node - ai pc client processor panther lake and server processor clearwater forest, their samples have now been shipped, powered on and successfully started the operating system. it was less than two quarters away from the previous successful tape-out. currently, both panther lake and clearwater forest are progressing smoothly and are expected to start mass production in 2025. in addition, intel also announced that the first external customer using intel 18a is expected to complete tape-out in the first half of next year.

the external customer collaborations that have been announced include: microsoft plans to use intel's 18a process node to produce a chip designed by it. intel will also use the intel 18a process to produce ai fabric chips for aws.

if intel's 18a process is successful, it will not only help intel's own pc and server processors expand their competitiveness, but will also successfully open up the situation for intel's wafer foundry business. according to intel's forecast, it will generate some wafer foundry revenue from external customers in 2026 and generate "meaningful" revenue in 2027.

therefore, for intel, whether the first intel 18a processor, clearwater forest xeon, can be launched as scheduled, and the performance and market performance of subsequent products are particularly critical. gelsinger has previously stated that he has placed the entire company's bet on intel 18a.

editor: core intelligence