Intel Cannonlake Troubled Before It Could Even Launch; Intel To Focus On Performance And Smartphone Business With 5G

Intel is supposedly launching its newest Cannonlake architecture by the end of the year and it will be based on the new 10-nanometer process node, which suffered some lag due to poor yield-rates. Intel to focus more on performance instead of process size as well as in its entry into the smartphone business by working on modem development to transition to 5G.

Previous reports say that Intel's 10-nm process node is ready and will go soon into mass production by the second half of 2017 for a launch at the end of the year or early 2018 of the Intel Cannonlake processors. However, this may not happen as revealed by Intel executive Murthy Renduchintala saying that the company will focus more on boosting performance since most PC users are not particular about the manufacturing process. This could mean that the 10-nm process node may be abandoned altogether and ushering in the death of Moore's Law.

Moore's Law lies on the principle that a company would have to manufacture new chips based on new process node every two years to squeeze in more transistors and features, The Motley Fool has learned. Intel has already broken tradition with its 14-nanometer+ technology with three architectures using it starting with Broadwell, Skylake, the latest seventh-generation Kaby Lake and possibly the upcoming Cannonlake as well. Incidentally, the Kaby Lake architecture uses an enhanced 14-nm process node designed to boost performance and power efficiency as compared to the original node. Moreover, Intel is reportedly working on its eight-generation Cofee Lake processors promising of a 15 percent boost over Kaby Lake according to PC World.

Intel will not only be changing its approach to PC chips manufacturing starting with Cannonlake by de-emphasizing process sizes, but also moving into the communications market. As revealed at MWC last month, Intel is aggressively pursuing modem development transition to 5G. The company has just already announced its XMM 7560 modem which is intended to span the gap from LTE to 5G allowing download speeds of 1Gbps according to Racing Junky. Once the smartphone market explodes with 5G, Intel will be ready as it desperately needs to recoup its losses amidst the Ryzen threat.