'Yield issues' delays Intel's shift to 10nm - for at least the third time

Intel mired in production issues causing 18-month+ delay to 10nm Cannon Lake CPUs

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has been forced to admit that the company's long-awaited volume shift to 10nm process architectures has been delayed again due to yield issues - an admission that comes at the same time that rival manufacturer TSMC is cranking up production of components at 7nm.

Intel's first 10nm silicon was originally slated for release in late 2016, but technical challenges encountered in shrinking transistors to ever smaller scales led to the launch being delayed until 2017.

The last we heard, back in September last year, Intel had once again pushed back mass production of its first 10nm 'Cannon Lake' chips until late-2018.

Volume production is moving from the second half of 2018 into 2019

Now, the company has been forced to admit that the process is taking even long. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich this week confirmed that the company's ramp up of volume production to 10nm silicon now won't happen until 2019 at the earliest.

"We continue to make progress on our 10-nanometer process," Krzanich explained during the firm's earnings call on Thursday.

"We are shipping in low volume and yields are improving, but the rate of improvement is slower than we anticipated.

"As a result, volume production is moving from the second half of 2018 into 2019. We understand the yield issues and have defined improvements for them, but they will take time to implement and qualify."

Krzanich wouldn't clarify when in 2019 production would ramp up, noting: "We didn't say first or second half, but we'll do it as quickly as we can based on the yield.

"The transistors work. We know the performance is in line. So it's really just about getting the defects and the costs in line to where we want," he added.

This latest delay is bad news for Intel, which is already falling behind rivals with its 10nm output. However, the news coincides with the hiring of chip-design guru Jim Keller from Tesla.

AMD has already confirmed that it plans to run its second and third generation Zen architecture x86 microprocessors on 7nm, while its latest Ryzen 2 line has already shifted to 12nm process architectures, offering a significant boost to performance.

Intel nevertheless reported stronger-than-expected first quarter results on Thursday fueled by growth of its data centre and Internet of Things businesses, which enjoyed increases in revenues of 24 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively.

Intel's Client Computing Group saw just three per cent growth to $8.2bn, due to stagnant PC sales, but the firm said it saw strong demand for its 8th-gen Intel Core i9 processor.