Intel Foundry Delivers!

Now that the dust has settled, I will give you my take on the Intel Foundry event. Some might call me a semiconductor event critic as I have attended hundreds of them over the last 40 years starting with the Design Automation Conference in 1984. Foundry events are my favorite because they really are the pulse of the semiconductor industry, it is all about the ecosystem of partners and customers. The message Intel Foundry sent this year is that they are going to earn your foundry business.

Last year, Intel Foundry was all about technology, which is fine, but what really matters is customers and that message was loud and clear to me this year. At some events I am herded around with media people but last week I ran free and was able to talk candidly with my fellow semiconductor professionals. More importantly, the badges were readable and mine even had my name on it in instead of just PRESS or MEDIA because I am so much more. I was amazed at the overall support by partners, pretty much everyone I saw at the TSMC event the previous week was there and quite a few badges from the top semiconductor companies were in attendance as well.

Surprisingly, the keynotes were live streamed which was a foundry event first for me. Speaking in front of more than a thousand of your peers AND live streamed? Horrifying if you think about it, and I have, but it was well done.

First up was Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. I have told people before that you should never bet against Lip-Bu. When he tells you something you can bank on it and that is my experience based on his time with Cadence. He first joined the Cadence board in 2004, was CEO 2009-2021, and left the board in 2023.

I started in the industry before there was a Cadence or Synopsys and spent the majority of my career in EDA and foundation IP. Cadence was having a very rough time when Lip-Bu joined and he turned Cadence into what they are today, a leading innovator in the semiconductor ecosystem.

Lip-Bu showed his EDA savvy by inviting EDA CEOs to the stage in a show of support on both sides. I have never seen this done before. It was amazing! Remember, without EDA companies there would be no foundries. Mike Ello did a nice job for Siemens EDA. I worked with Mike at Berkely DA up until the acquisition by Mentor. For those people who are concerned about Cadence having an inside advantage with Intel Foundry don’t be. Lip-Bu does not play that game. The foundry ecosystem has to be a level playing field and no one knows that better than Lip-Bu. On the EDA Enablement slide the key players were properly listed in alphabetical order: Ansys, Cadence, Keysight, Siemens EDA, and Synopsys.

Synopsys was nice enough to share some slides and a quote with me that really encapsulates what is going on with Intel 18A. I have heard this from multiple ecosystem people and customers so it is not just Synopsys and I agree 100% with Sassine Gahzi, CEO of Synopsys.

“You cannot only win with technology, you need to have the whole process of enablement ready in order for the customer to see it as viable,” said Sassine, holding an early Synopsys test chip produced on Intel 18A about one year ago. He also said the teams are now in early-stage DTCO for Intel14A-E, leveraging Synopsys Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) to use computer simulations for process node development.

Speaking of 14A, Intel mentioned a while back that HNA-EUV will not be required for 14A and from what I understand the first foundry version of 14A will be EUV. TSMC has said the same and this is a very good thing if you remember when EUV was delayed for YEARS! As I always say, plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Second up was Naga Chandrasekaran, Intel Foundry chief technology and operations officer followed by Kevin O’Buckley, general manager of Foundry Services. I do not know Naga personally but I do know people who worked for him at Micron and they speak very highly of him. Naga is a strong leader. Kevin I do know and I can vouch for him, he is a true professional and will work well with Lip-Bu. Here is a 30 minute clip from the keynotes that is worth watching:

Bottom line: Even with the short amount of time he has been CEO, Lip-Bu has already made a difference. Just wait until next year. I would bet that the Intel Foundry 18A customer tape-out list will be the Who’s Who of the semiconductor industry, absolutely.

Also Read:

Intel Presents the Final Frontier of Transistor Architecture at IEDM

An Invited Talk at IEDM: Intel’s Mr. Transistor Presents The Incredible Shrinking Transistor – Shattering Perceived Barriers and Forging Ahead

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