Intel Corp on Thursday gave new details of its turnaround strategy to source subcomponents of its chips from external factories, including new specifics of partnerships with rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電).
Intel still designs and manufactures its own chips, but it lost its lead in making the fastest chips to TSMC, which focuses on manufacturing designs from outside firms, after missteps in Intel’s manufacturing operations.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger earlier this year outlined the company’s strategy to regain its footing in manufacturing by 2025.
However, in the meantime, the company is trying to prevent further erosion of its chip market share by rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp, which have faster offerings.
Part of Intel’s answer involves tapping rivals like TSMC for subcomponents of chips called “tiles” and stitching those together in Intel’s own factories with packaging technology.
Intel on Thursday said that its new “Ponte Vecchio” chip would use key tiles made with TMSC’s “N5” and “N7” chipmaking technologies, placed on top of an Intel-made base.
The Ponte Vecchio chip’s first major use would be in a supercomputer that Intel is building for the US Department of Energy.
Raja Koduri, senior vice president of Intel’s accelerated computing systems and graphics group, conceded it had been years since Intel challenged Nvidia at speeding up artificial intelligence software, a market that has powered much of the chip industry’s expansion in recent years.
Koduri said the Ponte Vecchio chip is faster than Nvidia’s offerings at some of those tasks.
“For a decade, we let them just have free reign,” Koduri said. “That ends now.”
Intel earlier this week also gave a new name to its graphics chips that would challenge Nvidia’s other major market of video gaming.
Intel on Thursday said its “Alchemist” graphics chips would be made by TSMC using its newly named “N6” chipmaking technology, an upgraded version of its “N7” technology.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
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