Intel talks about 10nm issues, claims it can restore leadership position

At the Credit Suisse 22nd Annual TMT Conference, Intel Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan talked about the 10nm mess. He reiterated some stuff Intel has been saying for some time now, including how the company had too aggressive goals for 10nm and that this essentially backfired.

Intel's 10nm node ended up being a total mess and is several years late. Besides messing up the processor roadmap, this is also the cause of the current shortage of 14nm processors. Too much of Intel's product mix is now on 14nm because of the multi-year delay of 10nm.

The chip giant aims to debut its first mass production 10nm products in 2019 and plans to regain its leadership position thereafter. Swan also said Intel is still prioritizing Xeon over everything else, which makes sense as those chips have the highest profit margins.

In regards to supply constraints, Swan elaborated that they will continue to prioritize their Xeon product line first with their traditional small core and other devices coming second. Meaning those products will see continued supply shortages for the foreseeable future since that ties into Intel's eventual transition to 10nm. To help mitigate the issue, Intel has redeployed some of their 14nm equipment, but it is not enough to completely solve the supply problem. Right now they are trying to work with customers to figure out what constitutes actual demand rather than just inventory hoarding.

Via: TPU