Intel, according to rumors, is to release three generations of processors that will be fabbed on 5nm after Cannonlake and Icelake. Yesterday we already talked a bit about 5nm at TSMC. This new rumor pops up exactly at the same moment.
The third generation would be called Tigerlake and thus is indicative of a second tock in the tick-tick model. This year we will see Kaby lake based on 14nm, this is also an extra tock in the sequence. The tock basically means that Intel is not using a new production node with a smaller fabbed architecture yet sticks to the fabrication process. Last week during the quarterly results announcements the company strangle enough stated that it strives to get back to that tick-tock model. If Cannonlake appears in the 2nd half of 2017 and Icecake would surface a year later then Tigerlake should surface in the 2nd half of 2019 with the first 7nm chips in 2020.
For 5nm we'll probably see a new technology used, EUV-technology. EUV is Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) and is a next-generation lithography technology using an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelength, currently expected to be 13.5 nm. EUV is currently targeted for possible future use below 15 nm resolution after the 7 nm node, in 2018–19. The primary EUV tool maker, ASML, projects EUV at 5 nm node to require a higher numerical aperture than currently available and multiple patterning to a greater degree than immersion lithography at 20 nm node. It was first targeted for 100 nm conventional patterning.
Microarchitecture | CPU series | Tick or Tock | Fab node | Year Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
Presler/Cedar Mill | Pentium 4 / D | Tick | 65 nm | 2006 |
Conroe/Merom | Core 2 Duo/Quad | Tock | 65 nm | 2006 |
Penryn | Core 2 Duo/Quad | Tick | 45 nm | 2007 |
Nehalem | Core i | Tock | 45 nm | 2008 |
Westmere | Core i | Tick | 32 nm | 2010 |
Sandy Bridge | Core i 2xxx | Tock | 32 nm | 2011 |
Ivy Bridge | Core i 3xxx | Tick | 22 nm | 2012 |
Haswell | Core i 4xxx | Tock | 22 nm | 2013 |
Broadwell | Core i 5xxx | Tick | 14 nm | 2014 & 2015 for desktops |
Skylake | Core i 6xxx | Tock | 14 nm | 2015 |
Kaby lake | Core i 7xxx | Tock | 14 nm | 2016 |
Cannonlake | Core i 8xxx? | Tick | 10 nm | 2017 |
Icecake | Core i 8xxx? | Tock | 10 nm | 2018 |
Tigerlake | Core i 9xxx? | Tock | 10 nm | 2019 |
N/A | N/A | Tick | 5 nm | 2020 |
These names though .. will we ever see cupcake ?