Intel splits up manufacturing group amid production delays

[Nelly]

Intel will split its vaunted manufacturing unit into three pieces, the company told employees Monday. And Sohail Ahmed, who has jointly led the manufacturing organization since 2016, will retire next month.

The shakeup comes amid a crisis in Intel manufacturing, which is years behind schedule in delivering the company's next-generation, 10-nanometer chip technology. Intel says the chips, originally due in 2015, won't be in mass production until late next year.

The delay reflects the difficulty of shrinking feature sizes on computer chips as those features approach the atomic level. Intel used to introduce a new class of processors on a dependable, two-year cycle, fueling a broad advance in computing power. But its timetable has been slipping amid increasing complexity in the manufacturing process.

With Ahmed's departure, Intel plans to break its technology and manufacturing group into three segments:

Technology development, led by Mike Mayberry, a Hillsboro executive who serves as Intel's chief technology officer and head of Intel labs. Rich Uhlig will run Intel Labs on an interim basis as Mayberry takes on his new role.
Manufacturing and operations, led by Ann Kelleher, another Hillsboro executive who had been running the technology and manufacturing group with Ahmed.
Supply chain, to be run by Randhir Thakur.
They're all under the direction of Venkata "Murthy" Renduchintala, whom Intel hired away from Qualcomm in 2015. He is now president of several Intel businesses, including manufacturing, and the company's chief engineering officer.

Intel declined to elaborate on the changes.

"Sohail has been a great partner and an outstanding role model of Intel values," Renduchintala wrote in a note to employees obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. "His dedication, determined manner, focus on data-driven results and unwavering belief in Intel and in our technology have been foundational to the company's growth and success the past three decades."

Ahmed holds the title of senior vice president and general manager of the technology and manufacturing group. He joined Intel in 1984 and works in Hillsboro, where he and Kelleher have run the manufacturing group since 2016.

Retirement "was not an easy decision, but there is never a perfect time to make a change," Ahmed wrote in a note to colleagues. "It has been a wonderful, exciting and rewarding career for me, far more than I could have ever imagined. I had so much fun and would not trade it for anything else in the world!"

Though Intel's headquarters are in California, its largest and most advanced operations are in Washington County. The company develops each new generation of its leading-edge microprocessors in multibillion-dollar factories on its Ronler Acres campus near Hillsboro Stadium.

Intel employs about 20,000 in Oregon, more than any other business. Many of its top executives work here, too.

The delays in Intel's 10nm rollout result from persistent defects in the chips, reflecting the difficulties in the manufacturing process. Intel insists it will have the new chips out sometime next year, but the delay could enable rivals Advance Micro Devices and ARM Holdings to gain traction, especially in the lucrative market for data center servers.

"Thanks to the efforts of Sohail and the entire Intel team, we are making good progress on 10nm," Renduchintala wrote to employees Monday. "Yields are improving consistent with the timeline that we shared in April, and we continue to expect systems on shelves for the 2019 holiday season."

Intel has been without a chief executive since June, when Brian Krzanich abruptly resigned after the company uncovered "a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee" in violation of corporate policy. Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan is serving as interim CEO.

Source: Oregon Live

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

Are people still expecting Intel 10nm chips to be the same or not as good as current ones in terms of overall speed?

 

[SiDeards73]

Are people still expecting Intel 10nm chips to be the same or not as good as current ones in terms of overall speed?

Not as good, they have rinsed pretty much every inch of performance out of 14nm via it's many revisions, I think they will need atleast one 10nm revision to bypass 14nm performance, maybe even 2.

 

[Robert896r1]

Intel is in a weird spot. I don’t think I going to 10 alone will fix things. For whatever reason, it seems their architecture is maxed out and needs an overhaul or major changes. I just don’t see 10nm bunching thins together tighter Being favorable to the thermals. I’m working on learning more about manufacturing but something isn’t lining up right. I just don’t see how 10nm is a savior.

If they have been planning a major overhaul anyway then it’s a moot point.

 

[Rroff]

Intel is in a weird spot. I don’t think I going to 10 alone will fix things. For whatever reason, it seems their architecture is maxed out and needs an overhaul or major changes. I just don’t see 10nm bunching thins together tighter Being favorable to the thermals. I’m working on learning more about manufacturing but something isn’t lining up right. I just don’t see how 10nm is a savior.

If they have been planning a major overhaul anyway then it’s a moot point.

I think the problems as much as anything are corporate - that whole restructuring talked about says a lot and I'm not convinced is going to fix anything - sounds like they are just moving people around to look like they are doing something while not actually addressing the people problems.

If they can pull off their original vision for 10nm they will be in an OK spot as it was designed to steal a 3 year march on the competition - but it increasingly seems they need EUV (not surprising as some aspects of their 10nm are more like second gen 7nm) and by the time they do get it upto speed any advantage over the competition will have evaporated - which could be good for the consumer if we do end up with Intel and AMD in actual competition to each other.

I'm not convinced they are going to significantly relax it to get it out the door as some have mentioned - it doesn't actually make as much sense at a technical level as it would seem on paper but it is a bit beyond my level of understanding to explain they why on that to anyone else.

 

[SiDeards73]

What is also telling is they "Expect" to have stuff on shelves for Christmas 2019... i would not be surprised if that does not happen.

 

[4K8KW10]

Interesting prediction:

AMD’s next-generation CPUs could destroy Intel https://mybroadband.co.za/news/hardware/298878-amds-next-generation-cpus-could-destroy-intel.html

 

[CuriousTomCat]

It doesn't really matter if Intel's product lineup is destroyed. Intel will still have the biggest market share because people put the Intel brand before performance unfortunately. Even in 2006, AMD's highest peak was about 48%.

A 50/50 market split would be ideal. We seriously need AMD to have more money for R&D.

 

[Randomface74]

Sounds like they're trying to out-run the bear.

 

[Rroff]

Interesting prediction:

AMD’s next-generation CPUs could destroy Intel https://mybroadband.co.za/news/hardware/298878-amds-next-generation-cpus-could-destroy-intel.html

I wouldn't/couldn't count Intel out yet - they poured billions (or proposed spending) on getting 7nm into use including to the Israelis who saved their bacon last time around. Though the timeframe to decent capacity might be interesting - the turnaround for some of their 7nm expansions would be around 2.5 years to actual volume output.

 

[4K8KW10]

Intel will still have the biggest market share because people put the Intel brand before performance unfortunately.

True but the longer intel stays like now, the more problems they will begin to face. The current market attitude and position is largely an inertia moment from the past, with a trend to reverse.

It doesn't really matter if Intel's product lineup is destroyed.

I think they mean intel will have problems to survive in this form and shape as a company.

 

[~>Dg<~]

Intel splits up manufacturing group amid production delays

Interesting prediction:


AMD’s next-generation CPUs could destroy Intel https://mybroadband.co.za/news/hardware/298878-amds-next-generation-cpus-could-destroy-intel.html

i do love these forums.

 

[4K8KW10]

Intel splits up manufacturing group amid production delays



i do love these forums.

2008:
AMD Splits Off Manufacturing Operations
https://seekingalpha.com/article/98885-amd-splits-off-manufacturing-operations

2015:
"With the number of obstacles Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is facing, including overwhelming competition and burdensome debt, it is likely that bankruptcy is imminent." https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/081415/advanced-micro-devices-bankruptcy-imminent.asp

 

[Rroff]

*facepalm*

 

[ilc72]

Here are details of where Intel is with it’s 10nm:

https://semiaccurate.com/2019/01/25/why-semiaccurate-called-10nm-wrong/

Also it’s upcoming Foveros chip packaging is no panacea especially when it comes to thermals.

The problem I foresee for Intel is that it’s lost the chip fabrication wars, however it’s not really realistic for Intel to divest it’s chip manufacturing business, as IBM or AMD did, who would want to buy it? Having it’s processes so embedded with its products makes it difficult for other users such as NVIDIA or ARM based mobile competitors such as Qualcomm aren’t going to be interested.

 

[Klo]

2008:
AMD Splits Off Manufacturing Operations
https://seekingalpha.com/article/98885-amd-splits-off-manufacturing-operations

2015:
"With the number of obstacles Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is facing, including overwhelming competition and burdensome debt, it is likely that bankruptcy is imminent." https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/081415/advanced-micro-devices-bankruptcy-imminent.asp

There is a difference between splitting up and splitting off...

 

[Rroff]

Here are details of where Intel is with it’s 10nm:

https://semiaccurate.com/2019/01/25/why-semiaccurate-called-10nm-wrong/

Also it’s upcoming Foveros chip packaging is no panacea especially when it comes to thermals.

The problem I foresee for Intel is that it’s lost the chip fabrication wars, however it’s not really realistic for Intel to divest it’s chip manufacturing business, as IBM or AMD did, who would want to buy it? Having it’s processes so embedded with its products makes it difficult for other users such as NVIDIA or ARM based mobile competitors such as Qualcomm aren’t going to be interested.

The problem is a lot of people think that because Intel 10nm was a big fat failure that it is a road block to 7nm - but Intel's 7nm is not a refinement or evolution of their 10nm - it started life separately to 10nm with understanding that many of the technical aspects that have stumbled the 10nm development would be issues while they thought they'd get away with it a 10nm. Obviously then there is the whole mismanagement side but that is another story.

 

[DragonQ]

Are people still expecting Intel 10nm chips to be the same or not as good as current ones in terms of overall speed?

Yep. I still doubt that 10 nm will appear this year, at least in performance desktop parts. A 10-core 14nm+++ Skylake is more likely IMO. I also still think Ryzen 3 will be 12 cores maximum but time will tell.

 

[Distracted]

The problem is a lot of people think that because Intel 10nm was a big fat failure that it is a road block to 7nm - but Intel's 7nm is not a refinement or evolution of their 10nm - it started life separately to 10nm with understanding that many of the technical aspects that have stumbled the 10nm development would be issues while they thought they'd get away with it a 10nm. Obviously then there is the whole mismanagement side but that is another story.

This.

I see intel losing ground this gen or the next gen as a result of the delay/canning of 10nm and the mismanagement, but that is good for the consumer in terms of competition.

Long term I don't believe any of the doom and gloom is warranted and that Intel will be back with 7nm and competitive, though not necessarily the top performing player in the space. Again, this isn't bad for the consumer, competition is a good thing.

 

[LePhuronn]

Interesting prediction

I don't see a prediction. I also don't see any content, suggestion or opinion to support the clickbait headline. It's simply rabbiting what we've all been saying since CES.