Intel Confirms It Has 14nm Test Circuits Ready in Its Labs

Intel disclosed recently that the company has already finalized the very first test circuits built using the advanced 14 process technology which the chip maker plans to use for manufacturing its 2014 processors code named Broadwell.

The info was disclosed by Pat Bliemer, Managing Director for Northern Europe and Benelux at Intel, in an exclusive interview with the Nordic Hardware website.

According to the company’s rep, the technology is ready for building 14nm products in laboratory conditions, which means that Intel has a huge advantage in terms of manufacturing compared to its competitors that still struggle to go under 20 nanometers.

The news is hardly surprising considering that Intel was also was the first company to start mass producing chips using the 32nm node.

Furthermore, as another industry first, the chip maker has recently announced that it initiated volume production of Ivy Bridge CPUs fabricated using the 22nm technology with 3-D transistors, better known as Tri-Gate transistors.

Pat Bliemer could also confirm that Intel's Tick-Tock strategy is proceeding according to schedule, which means that the first processors based on the 14nm node should make their appearance in 2014, when Broadwell is expected to arrive.

The Broadwell CPU comes as a "tick" on Intel’s roadmap, meaning that this is actually the 14nm die shrink of the Haswell architecture which is expected to arrive sometime in 2013.

Unlike Haswell however, its 14nm variant will feature a more integrated design which will make it Intel’s first true SoC design as it includes features such as Ethernet, Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 right on the chip’s die.

The rest of Broadwell’ specs are not known at this time, but these chips will definitely support many of the architecture improvements Intel plans to include in its Haswell core, like AVX2 and DirectX 11.1 support.

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