On Tuesday, Intel provided an update on the progress of its 18A (1.8nm-class) fabrication process, a crucial technology for its foundry initiative. By now, the company has a process design kit (PDK) version 1.0 ready, so its third-party customers can start (or even finalize) the development of chips in this manufacturing process. Furthermore, two essential Intel products using this production node have powered on, which is a good sign.
"The Panther Lake client processor is powered on and booting Windows, yielding well, in use inside Intel and ahead of schedule on product qualification milestones," said Kevin O'Buckley, Intel senior vice president and general manager of Foundry Services. "Clearwater Forest [CPU] for datacenter is powered on, booting operating systems, in use inside Intel and performing well."
