Intel responds to rumors of delays in its 3 nm and those of TSMC

Rumors and more rumors have spread around here, but the last one specifically about the 3 nm of the blue giant we did not give it because we did not find any foundations or basis to offer it. In it it was said that Intel would have severe delays with its Intel 3 lithographic process, but, at the same time and on the other hand, it was said in another rumor that TSMC was also in a similar situation and that, in addition, Apple had monopolized all the production of the node N3 for this year, taking Meteor Lake off the market. Today, Pat Gelsinger wanted to go out and answer these issues.

Controversial topic like few others, because although it may not seem like it, Zen 5 It’s getting closer and Intel needs a knockout to counter AMD’s advance, at least if the performance rumors are true. For this reason, delaying or blowing up Meteor Lake It’s a problem for the blues. What did Gelsinger say?

Intel denies the announced delays and even those of TSMC

Gelsinger has been unambiguous on this occasion, but at the same time he has left many loose cables that he has not known or wanted to answer. Let’s see what he said:

“The programs of 3nm are on the right track, both with TSMC as with our internal Intel 3 programs, Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest in particular. I am somewhat shocked by some of these rumors that are surfacing. You may have noticed that there were some similar ones in Intel 4 a few months ago, and also with some of our other shows with TSMC, which were also patently fake at the time.”

The conversation has been offered in an audio within the company’s capital allocation update on the occasion of a conference offered by Gelsinger at ISSCC 2023, and although he affirms that everything is going as it should… Once again he refuses to speak from Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake.

What about the desktop rumors with TSMC’s 3nm and Intel 3?

Rumors pointed to a direct cancellation of Meteor Lake-S, not of the architecture, and where Intel would go to Arrow Lake at once, but then this year it was sold to AMD. The answer would be based on a Raptor Lake Refresh, moving Meteor Lake-S architecture to laptops within what would be Meteor Lake-P and their processors, these with Intel 4 as lithographic node.

Why is Intel talking about TSMC? Well, because Meteor Lake should have had a Taiwanese-made tGPU in that N3. Gelsinger focuses on Intel 3 because it is intended for servers (it is a direct improvement of Intel 4), we will not see it on PC, but the most pressing problems are in this sector, temporarily speaking. And what does he say to all this?

Can Intel keep its word and thus silence the rumors?

“So, there are no changes to the programs as they have indicated. There is good, solid execution on both the client side, server side, and AXG [gráficos]. We are also gaining momentum with foundry customers (IFS). So I feel good that I have overcome many of the challenges. You know, these rumors, like many others, will be proved by our execution to be firmly false.”

There is no answer to this, mainly because it continues to refer to Intel 3 and does not comment on Arrow Lake, already by 2024, where then TSMC will have sufficient productive capacity and Apple will not have the exclusivity of the node. But this has nothing to do with Meteor Lake-S and its rumors, since the only thing that had been said about Arrow Lake as the next architecture is that it could have the tGPU manufactured at 5 nm if Apple did not release the production of the Taiwanese.

Now, according to Gelsinger, in 2024 this architecture will come with its tGPU at 3nm as planned, so as you have said, it will be the execution of the plan that will show if the rumors were right or wrong.