Intel Foundries Continue to Face Issues and Another Spectre-Like Vulnerability Disclosure May Be Looming

Despite positive first quarter results for 2018, Intel faces continuing issues with its foundries, both with the oft-delayed 10nm, as well as its own modem production in 14nm. Intel revealed in the earnings conference call that volume 10nm manufacturing had been delayed to 2019, without specifying which part of the year.

The debut of Intel's 10nm process has been a particular sore spot, with the forthcoming Whiskey Lake set to be the fifth new architecture debut in the 14nm process. Prior to 14nm, Intel had maintained a two architecture, "tick-tock" strategy for its processors, where a new foundry node denoted a small architecture update over the previous processor as a "tick," and a more significant architectural evolution as a "tock" on a matured process.

We first reported on the demise of the tick-tock strategy in 2016. Things have only grown worse for Intel since then as 10nm has faced further delays. To put this delay in perspective, Intel's original roadmaps had 10nm technology debuting in 2015. There are several reasons for the delay, but Intel CEO Brian Krzanich explained that some features in Intel's 10nm process require up to five or six multi-pattern steps, whereas other competing foundries are known for up to four steps in 10nm or 7nm processes.

intel2017details
This development has consequences for Intel, its customers, and its competitors. First, Intel has lost the technology advantage it once held over the rest of the semiconductor industry. While you cannot compare the dimension in the node name directly across foundries, competitors such as TSMC, Samsung, and Global Foundries have largely reached parity with Intel's 10nm on 7nm processes, with transistor densities besting Intel's own at 10nm. Intel used the transistor density metric to combat the marketing furor that the node names created, but it seems to have lost those bragging rights as well.

More importantly, Intel's competitors are starting to enter volume manufacturing of competing 7nm nodes. While the technology leadership was only important to Intel before as an enabler for superior products, its relatively recent opening of fabs to outside customers has lost some of its luster as a result of these developments.

In the earnings call, Intel also acknowledged that it expects to cede marketshare to rival AMD, as its rival has enjoyed recent success thanks to the debut of new CPU architectures such as Zen that have begun to close the performance gap with Intel's own CPUs. AMD is expected to make significant gains in the server space thanks to recent developments, and after spinning off its own foundry into Global Foundries, has been using a mixture of the former in-house foundry and TSMC. AMD is expected to debut consumer products on the 7nm node in 2019.

XMM7560The impact to Apple is fewer processor updates for its Mac product line with meager performance improvements between successive generations. Apple famously abandoned PowerPC for its stagnation and performance gap to Intel's x86 offerings, and now the situation seems poised to repeat itself with the persistent rumors that Apple could use its own processors for the Mac line of products.

Apple's iPhone and iPad products are affected as well, as the company's increasing reliance on Intel modems is held back by Intel's troubles in producing modems at volume on its own 14nm process.

Intel's modems, the product of its acquisition of Infineon, had been fabricated on TSMC's processes as had been originally designed until recently. The XMM 7560, Intel's gigabit class modem with CDMA support, will be fabricated on its own 14nm process and is widely expected to be featured in Apple's next mobile products.

Intel also has ambitions to enter the fray for RF and analog design wins, and recently disclosed details on its 22FFL process, a combination of the 22nm, 14nm, and 10nm product lines aimed at lower cost and power solutions, as well as analog and RF. However, notably absent from this disclosure is an announcement of any design wins.

Intel's RF transceivers, such as the SMARTi 7 RF transceiver that is paired with the XMM 7560 modem, would have been a prime candidate for a process such as this. The lack of such an announcement suggests it remains fabricated at a foundry with an established RF/analog process history -- most likely TSMC.

meltdownspectre
Finally, Intel may be facing another CPU vulnerability disclosure, with Anandtech reporting via c't magazine, that more vulnerabilities are currently being researched in the security community, and Intel has issued its own statement on data security seemingly in anticipation of this disclosure. The magnitude of the exploits appears to be on the scale of the original Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, and Intel is already preparing patches for the newly identified exploits, according to c't.

These vulnerabilities are expected to affect ARM and AMD as well, as at least one of the original Spectre and Meltdown exploits did, but Intel arguably faces the most scrutiny given its high profile position of market leadership.

Tag: Intel

Top Rated Comments

jonblatho Avatar
77 months ago
Apple moving the Mac to ARM looks better and better.
These vulnerabilities are expected to affect ARM and AMD as well, as the original Spectre and Meltdown exploits did, but Intel arguably faces the most scrutiny given its high profile position of market leadership.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JPack Avatar
77 months ago
Meltdown affects only Intel.
Apple itself admits iOS (and therefore Apple application processors) is affected by Meltdown.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208394

Let's not spread myths that were debunked 6 months ago.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djcerla Avatar
77 months ago
Apple moving the Mac to ARM looks better and better.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Narcaz Avatar
77 months ago
Apple should built a semi custom processor with AMD.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cube Avatar
77 months ago

These vulnerabilities are expected to affect ARM and AMD as well, as the original Spectre and Meltdown exploits did
Meltdown affects only Intel.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
motm95 Avatar
77 months ago
Finally, Intel may be facing another CPU vulnerability disclosure, with Anandtech reporting ('https://www.anandtech.com/show/12712/spectre-watch-more-spectreclass-vulnerabilities-to-be-announced-soon') via c't magazine, that more vulnerabilities are currently being researched in the security community, and Intel has issued its own statement ('https://newsroom.intel.com/articles/addressing-questions-regarding-additional-security-issues/') on data security seemingly in anticipation of this disclosure. The magnitude of the exploits appears to be on the scale of the original Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, and Intel is already preparing patches for the newly identified exploits, according to c't.
Theo de Raadt was so right all those years ago...

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/28/core_2_duo_errata/
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

reset password request iphone

Warning: Apple Users Targeted in Phishing Attack Involving Rapid Password Reset Requests

Tuesday March 26, 2024 4:34 pm PDT by
Phishing attacks taking advantage of Apple's password reset feature have become increasingly common, according to a report from KrebsOnSecurity. Multiple Apple users have been targeted in an attack that bombards them with an endless stream of notifications or multi-factor authentication (MFA) messages in an attempt to cause panic so they'll respond favorably to social engineering. An...
iPhone Home Screen Gradient Blank Spaces 1

Sources: iOS 18 Lets Apps Be Placed Anywhere on Home Screen Grid

Sunday March 24, 2024 1:33 pm PDT by
iOS 18 will give iPhone users greater control over Home Screen app icon arrangement, according to sources familiar with the matter. While app icons will likely remain locked to an invisible grid system on the Home Screen, to ensure there is some uniformity, our sources say that users will be able to arrange icons more freely on iOS 18. For example, we expect that the update will introduce...
iPad Pro 2024 Landscape Camera Feature

New iPad Pro Again Rumored to Feature Landscape Front-Facing Camera

Monday March 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by
The next-generation iPad Pro will feature a landscape-oriented front-facing camera for the first time, according to the Apple leaker known as "Instant Digital." Instant Digital reiterated the design change earlier today on Weibo with a simple accompanying 2D image. The post reveals that the entire TrueDepth camera array will move to the right side of the device, while the microphone will...
sonoma desktop wwdc

Apple Releases macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 With Fix for USB Hub Bug

Monday March 25, 2024 10:10 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sonoma 14.4.1, a minor update for the macOS Sonoma operating system that launched last September. macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 comes three weeks after macOS Sonoma 14.4. The ‌‌‌‌macOS Sonoma‌‌ 14.4‌.1 update can be downloaded for free on all eligible Macs using the Software Update section of System Settings. There's also a macOS 13.6.6 release for those who...
Generic iOS 18 Feature Purple

iOS 18 Will Finally Bring This Android Feature to iPhone

Monday March 25, 2024 6:42 am PDT by
iOS 18 will allow iPhone users to place app icons anywhere on the Home Screen grid, according to sources familiar with development of the software update. This basic feature has long been available on Android smartphones. While app icons will likely remain locked to an invisible grid system on the Home Screen, our sources said that users will be able to arrange icons more freely on iOS 18....
maxresdefault

Apple Announces WWDC 2024 Event for June 10 to 14

Tuesday March 26, 2024 10:02 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its 35th annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place from Monday, June 10 to Friday, June 14. As with WWDC events since 2020, WWDC 2024 will be an online event that is open to all developers at no cost. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. WWDC 2024 will include online sessions and labs so that developers can learn about new...
apple maps 3d feature

Apple Maps May Gain Custom Routes With iOS 18

Tuesday March 26, 2024 3:10 pm PDT by
Apple may be planning to add support for "custom routes" in Apple Maps in iOS 18, according to code reviewed by MacRumors. Apple Maps does not currently offer a way to input self-selected routes, with Maps users limited to Apple's pre-selected options, but that may change in iOS 18. Apple has pushed an iOS 18 file to its maps backend labeled "CustomRouteCreation." While not much is revealed...
iphone reasons to upgrade

Apple Outlines 'Reasons to Upgrade' Your iPhone on New Website

Monday March 25, 2024 12:53 pm PDT by
Apple today added a "Why Upgrade" section to its website, which is aimed at encouraging customers with older iPhones to upgrade to a newer model. The website allows customers to compare the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max to the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, or iPhone 15 Pro Max. Each comparison shows what new features someone with an older...