Intel reported its second-quarter (Q2) 2021 financial results last night. Revenue-wise, Team Blue hasn"t seen much change in its situation compared to last year"s Q2 results. Worrying for Intel is the fact that its data center group (DCG) revenue has been reduced by 9%, probably due to the excellent performance offered by AMD"s EPYC server CPUs. The non-GAAP earnings per share overall though have improved by 12%. For those interested, you can find the full earnings report here.
Aside from that, the company also had some positive news to share regarding its long-delayed 10nm FinFET process. Pat Gelsinger, the new CEO of Intel has stated the company is "now manufacturing more 10-nanometer wafers than 14-nanometer". Here"s his full statement from a call transcript (via Seeking Alpha):
Under IDM 2.0, our factory network continues to deliver and we are now manufacturing more 10-nanometer wafers than 14-nanometer. As 10-nanometer volumes ramp, economics are improving with 10-nanometer wafer cost 45% lower year-over-year with more to come.
A few years back, Intel had been pretty confident about its 10nm process often touting its advantages against competitors" nodes as well as its own previous processes.
The company originally hoped to launch the first 10nm-based chip in the form of the Cannon Lake family of processors back in 2015-16. Evidently, that didn"t happen and the company was forced to revise its famous "Tick-Tock" cycle to the "Process-Architecture-Optimization" (PAO).
The company finally launched its first 10nm processor with the hybrid Lakefield design which was for mobile. Desktop users are yet to get a taste of Intel"s 10nm process but thanks to the improving yields of the node, we would likely see that soon on this form factor too starting with Alder Lake-S.