Intel 3 process officially revealed: area reduced by 10%, energy efficiency soared by 17%

On June 13, it was reported that Intel's 4 manufacturing process was only used once on the first generation of Core Ultra, codenamed Meteor Lake. Now it is the turn of Intel 3, which has been mass-produced as scheduled. It was first used for the Xeon 6 energy-efficient core version, codenamed Sierra Forest, and will also be used for the Xeon 6 performance core version, codenamed Granite Rapids, to be launched in the third quarter.

According to Intel's latest official data, Intel 3 has a 10% reduction in logic compared to Intel 4 (which can be understood as transistor size), while the performance per watt (that is, energy efficiency) has increased by 17%.

Intel explained that the current practice in the semiconductor industry is that the naming of process nodes is no longer based on the actual physical feature size of the transistor, but is based on iterations based on a certain percentage of improvement in performance and energy efficiency.

It can be roughly understood that the performance level of Intel 3 is roughly equivalent to the 3nm process of other manufacturers.

Intel 3 is actually an upgraded version of Intel 4. One of the main changes is that the application of EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography has become more sophisticated, and EUV is used in more production processes.

Second, a higher density design library was introduced to increase transistor drive current and optimize the interconnect technology stack by reducing through-hole resistance.

In addition, thanks to the practical experience of Intel 4, the production of Intel 3 increased faster.

In the future, Intel will also launch multiple evolutionary versions of Intel 3 to meet the diverse needs of customers.

Among them, Intel 3-T will introduce through-silicon via technology to optimize 3D stacking;

Intel 3-E will expand more functions, such as radio frequency, voltage adjustment, etc.;

Intel 3-PT will achieve at least 5% performance improvement while adding through-silicon via technology.

Intel emphasized that Intel 3 is an important node. Large-scale mass production marks that the "four-year five process nodes" plan has entered the "sprint stage". It is also the first node that Intel will open to external foundry.

Next, Intel will usher in the "Angstrom era" of semiconductors.

Intel 20A will be first used in Arrow Lake consumer processors and will be released in mass production in the second half of 2024.

Intel 18A is an upgraded version of Intel 20A. It will be used in server processors code-named Clearwater Forest and consumer processors code-named Panther Lake in 2025, and will be open to foundry customers on a large scale.

Next up is Intel 14A.