Michelle Johnston, Executive Vice President of Intel, who is responsible for global sales and marketing, spoke about this unusual situation during the BMO Virtual Technology Summit. The host asked about the first reaction of Intel customers to the news about the delay in the adoption of 7nm technology. Michelle Johnston admitted that customers were most worried about the impact of this delay on the timing of 10nm products since the same PC makers have already begun preparations for their release. In turn, 7-nm products in their understanding seemed to be something more distant and amorphous.

Ms. Johnston found it necessary to recall the release sequence of 10nm Intel novelties. A week later, the announcement of 10nm Tiger Lake mobile processors will take place, which, according to Intel, have a very successful combination of consumer qualities for the situation this year. In the previous interpretation, as we know, Tiger Lake processors could be referred to as the 10nm ++ process technology, but now they are described by the elegant term SuperFin Technology.

Ice Lake-SP server processors will also be presented before the end of the year, which will be produced using the same generation of 10nm technology. Even the Sapphire Rapids server processors announced a year later will retain the same process technology. Only in the client segment in the second half of 2021 will Intel decide to release Alder Lake processors that will use a more advanced version of lithography: Enhanced SuperFin or “10nm +++” in the old interpretation.

Let’s not forget about Intel’s discrete graphics, which will also use 10nm production technology in the coming years. This year, the budget DG1 will debut, which will share the second-generation 10nm process technology with Tiger Lake mobile processors. If Intel’s Xe-HPG series gaming products will be produced by a third-party contractor, then its own Xe-HP computing accelerators will share with Alder Lake a progressive version of the 10nm “three plus” process technology, aka Enhanced SuperFin. These products will be released next year. As the vice president of Intel explained, there is no reason to fear the impact of problems with 7nm technology on the schedule of 10nm products.