The legendary chip architect Jim Keller has shared his thoughts on Intel’s cutting-edge processes, claiming that Team Blue still needs to refine its ‘foundry game’.
Well, the sentiment around Intel’s foundry chips is quite varied across the board, as we haven’t seen many comments from industry experts regarding the 18A or 14A node until now. However, it seems that Jim Keller has a few things to say. In an interview with Nikkei Asia, the chip expert expressed optimism about Intel Foundry, claiming that his firm, Tenstorrent, will not be reluctant to adopt the company’s cutting-edge processes. However, Team Blue needs to do a lot more to ensure external volume for its chips.
We are talking to TSMC, Rapidus and Samsung for 2-nm technologies. The CEO said he would also consider Intel for chip production, though “they still have a lot of work to do … to deliver a really solid technology roadmap.”
– Nikkei Asia
Intel has been approaching external partners for their 18A and upcoming processes as well, since the idea here is to ensure that the foundry division pivots away from the ‘only internal’ approach towards opening up its chip products to customers. With Jim Keller’s comments, concluding that Intel’s processes aren’t ready for client adoption would not be the right move; instead, Team Blue is moving swiftly with its chips, and they have the prospect of being integrated into mainstream products, given that the momentum continues.
For those unaware, Jim Keller has an AI startup called Tenstorrent, which designs AI products around the RISC-V architecture. The company has been steadily progressing with its AI chips, and yesterday, we reported on how Tenstorrent is eying Rapidus’ 2nm process, and Keller has confirmed this as well. So, it’s safe to say that 2nm is going to play a massive role in Tenstorrent’s upcoming products, and Jim Keller has actually managed to approach every mainstream chip firm out there.
Jim Keller is actually one of the icons of the industry, and while many of our readers might not be aware of his history, for a quick summary, he has worked with NVIDIA, Apple, Intel, and Tesla, which is why his comments and insights are taken a lot more seriously.