US semiconductor giant Intel came out with a series of announcements today about its products, technologies, and future business direction. In the wake of the storm generated by remarks by the company's CEO Bob Swan to the effect that it might outsource some manufacturing, Intel declared today that it would continue to invest in production technologies. The announcement made no direct reference to the possibility of outsourcing production.
This clarification was in the margins of a series of significant announcements concerning new products and technologies. Intel announced a new generation of 10 nanometer processor nodes, and a rebranding of them. It said that its next flagship processor, Tiger Lake, to be launched in early September for laptops, would incorporate these chips. Of the performance improvement from the new chips, Intel's chief architect Raja Koduri told Reuters, "It is 20%, the largest intra-node jump ever in our history."
Intel also unveiled its next series of CPU chips, Alder Lake. For the first time, this chip will offer hybrid architecture, incorporating regular and small cores. Alder Lake, which is under development at Intel's development centers in Israel, is expected to reach the market in the second half of 2021. Intel says that the new product will be its best ever in terms of performance versus power consumption.
The most significant announcement by Intel was that of the launch of new graphics processing units. With the new GPUs, Intel will open a new front against its leading rivals, Nvidia and AMD, which dominate the graphics processor market.
The new GPUs are expected to reach the PC market this year, and will be available for data centers in 2021.
Intel is the largest employer in Israel's technology sector, and one of Israel's biggest exporters. The company has been active in Israel since 1974, and employs about 13,700 people in three development centers, in Haifa, Jerusalem, and Petah Tikva, at its fab in Kiryat Gat, which employs 4,700 people, at Mobileye, and other centers.
The company's workforce accounts for about 5% of the number of people employed in Israel's technology sector, and it is responsible for about 1.5% of Israel's GDP. In 2019, Intel's exports from Israel rose by 70% to $6 billion. The company says that its procurement from Israeli companies last year was worth $1.8 billion, of which 75% was from small and medium-size businesses. According to Intel, some 53,000 people in Israel are indirectly employed in providing services to it.
Intel is currently constructing a new fab in Israel at an investment of NIS 40 billion, for which it received a government grant of NIS 4 billion. The new fab is due to employ about 1,000 people, and it is believed that it will enable production using seven nanometer technology, although Intel has never confirmed this.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 13, 2020
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