Intel says it has reached an important milestone with the 18A baking process and confirms that it will meet its deadlines. Good news that Intel can capitalize on.

Intel Foundry, the chip company’s manufacturing arm, is reporting an important milestone in the transition to the 18A process. The first Panther Lake PC processor and Clearwater Forest processor for servers baked using the new process successfully launched an operating system. To celebrate, Intel is releasing a design kit for its manufacturing customers to get used to the Intel 18A.

Beyond that, Intel mostly communicates few details about the breakthrough, with Kevin Buckley only having to say that Intel 18A is “delivering good results” and that Intel is well on its way to launching the baking process in 2025. We don’t seem to be able to expect any information on the yields Intel 18A produces, for example, for the time being.

In production from 2025

With the announcement, Intel wants to draw the chip world’s attention to the new process. The chip giant seems to have almost tied its fate to the success of Intel 18A. In addition to the very small node on which the Intel 18A chips are baked (1.8 nm), the process is the first one that can be relied upon Gate all around (GAA) transistors.

Intel is confident that it will have the first Intel 18A chips for PCs rolling off the production line by 2025. Whether this will be spring or fall is not specified. However, it will take until 2026 for Intel 18A to be ready for mass production.

The company and its employees desperately need this good news. There has been little good news at Intel in recent days. There are the problems with the Raptor Lake processors, which could still have legal implications. CEO Pat Gelsinger recently announced a major restructuring in which 15,000 employees are at risk of losing their jobs.