The drop in the computer market is forcing Intel to scale back its orders and future releases.
For several years, Intel has been confronted with major technical difficulties in its transition to the 10nm etching process. These difficulties have caused multiple postponements on several generations of processors and have even forced Intel to interpose developments that were not planned in the program. Today, however, it's not a technical problem that seems to have prompted Intel to review its roadmap. Indeed, according to the latest information officially published by the American group, its 14th generation of processors - Meteor Lake - should arrive in the third quarter of 2023 when the 15th generation - Arrow Lake - is expected for the third quarter of 2024.
Often very well informed, DigiTimes seems to lean for a postponement of Arrow Lake to the first quarter of 2025, if all goes well. In a statement reported by Tom's Hardware, DigiTimes says that some contracts between Intel and TSMC have been renegotiated. TSMC - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company - is the world leader in semiconductor manufacturing. The Taiwanese company is already a close partner of Intel, which has entrusted it with the manufacture of its ARC Alchemist graphics chips. In a slightly more distant future, TSMC should produce the graphics part of Intel's 15th generation processors. Arrow Lake would indeed rely for its entire GPU component on TSMC's 3nm etching process.
According to DigiTimes, Intel has postponed certain orders placed with TSMC, particularly those concerning 3nm. It would not be possible to receive these orders until the end of 2024. It would then no longer be possible to produce and market Arrow Lake processors in either the third or fourth quarter of 2024. DigiTimes evokes a release of this 15th generation, in the best case in the first quarter of 2025. DigiTimes points out, however, that none of this is set in stone. In the meantime, Intel is already planning to launch Meteor Lake, which will be the first opportunity to verify the Intel / TSMC partnership on chiplet-based chips: its 14th generation of processors should indeed combine Intel (Intel 4 process on compute tiles) and TSMC (5 nm GPU and 6 nm SoC).
