Cannon Lake is coming, Intel’s next major processor update takes the die to 10 nanometers. Unfortunately, Intel announced that it won’t be shipping 10nm processors in high volume this year, andis now targeting 2019.
Intel revealed the updated time frame while discussing its first quarter earnings, in which the company collected a record $16.1 billion in revenue, a healthy 13 percent year-over-year jump, along with a 50 percent increase in profit to $4.5 billion.
“Coming off a record 2017, 2018 is off to a strong start. Our PC business continued to execute well and our datacentric businesses grew 25 percent, accounting for nearly half of first-quarter revenue,” said Brian Krzanich (PDF), Intel CEO. “The strength of Intel’s business underscores my confidence in our strategy and the unrelenting demand for compute performance fueled by the growth of data.”
Challenges remain in manufacturing its next-generation 10nm parts. Krzanich acknowledged as much during an earnings call, attributing the delay to difficulties in getting 10nm yields to where they need to be. So rather than push to ship 10nm in volume this year, Intel is giving itself some additional time to sort things out.
Intel is actually shipping 10nm products right now, but in low volume. The significance there is that Intel is able to manufacture 10nm processors, but has more work to do before it can ship Cannon Lake and other 10nm CPUs in volume. In the meantime, Intel plans to continue optimizing its 14nm product lines.
