What Products Use Intel 10nm? SuperFin and 10++ Demystified
by Dr. Ian Cutress on September 25, 2020 9:00 AM ESTThe AnandTech Decoder Ring for Intel 10nm
The reason why I’m writing about this topic is because it is all a bit of a mess. Intel is a company so large, with many different business units each with its own engineers and internal marketing personnel/product managers, that a single change made by the HQ team takes time to filter down to the other PR teams, but also filter back through the engineers, some of which make press-facing appearances. That’s before any discussions as to whether the change is seen as positive or negative by those affected.
I reached out to Intel to get their official decoder ring for the 10++ to new SuperFin naming. The official response I received was in itself confusing, and the marketing person I speak to wasn’t decoding from the first 2018 naming change, but from the original pre-2017 naming scheme. Between my contacts and I we spoke over the phone so I could hear what they wanted to tell me and so I could tell them what I felt were the reasons for the changes. Some of the explanations I made (such as Intel not wanting to acknowledge Ice Lake 10nm is different to Cannon Lake 10nm, or that Ice Lake 10nm is called that way to hide the fact that Cannon Lake 10nm didn’t work) were understandably left with a no comment.
However, I now have an official decoder ring for you, to act as a reference for both users and Intel’s own engineers alike.
AnandTech's Decoder Ring for Intel's 10nm | ||||
Product | 2020+ | First Update |
Original |
|
Cannon Lake | - | - | 10nm | |
Ice Lake Ice Lake-SP Lakefield (compute) Snow Ridge Elkhart Lake |
10nm | 10nm | 10+ | |
Tiger Lake SG1 DG1 |
10nm Superfin |
10+ | 10++ | |
Alder Lake First Xe-HP GPU Sapphire Rapids |
10nm Enhanced SuperFin |
10++ | 10+++ |
For clarity, 10nm Superfin is often abbreviated to 10SF, and 10nm Enhanced Superfin to 10ESF.
Moving forward, Intel’s communications team is committed to explaining everything in terms of 10nm, 10SF, and 10ESF. I have been told that the process of moving all internal documents away from the pre-2017 naming to the 2020 naming is already underway.
We reached out for Intel for a comment for this article:
It is widely acknowledged within the industry that there is inconsistency and confusion in [our] nanometer nomenclature. Going forward, we will refer the next generation 10nm products as 10nm SuperFin technology-based products.
My take is that whoever had the bright idea to knock Ice Lake down from 10+ to 10 (and then Tiger from 10++ to 10+ etc.), in order to protect the company from addressing issues with the Cannon Lake product, drastically failed at predicting the fallout that this name change would bring. Sometimes a company should accept they didn't score as well as they did, admit the hit, and move on, rather than try and cover it up. So much more time and effort has been lost in terms of communications between the press and Intel, or the press and engineers, or even between the engineers and Intel's own communications team. Even the basic understanding of dealing with that change has been difficult, to the detriment of the press trying to report on Intel’s technology, and likely even on the financial side as investors try to understand what’s going on.
But, truth be told, I’m glad that Intel moved away from the ++++ nomenclature. It allows the company to now easily name future manufacturing node technologies that aren’t just for pure logic performance, which may be vital if Intel ever wants to become a foundry player again.
143 Comments
View All Comments
dotjaz - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
You are so delusional. They don't have that many nodes. Process improves all the time, but some improvements require no change on the design front, some requires a simple re-spin, some require design changes to take advantage of design rule changes.The ones requiring no re-spin is not a new node at all, because those are generally counted as yield improvements.
Spunjji - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
Most of these improvements were already acknowledged by Intel, though not always named. The delusion is yours.drexnx - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
Devil's Canyon wasn't a process change, it was a TIM change and package cap changeSkylake was just 14
Coffee and Coffee refresh are both 14++
Spunjji - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
Pretty sure they rolled in unannounced changes, too. Check the voltage requirements / binning. They used to do that quietly all the time back then.RSAUser - Saturday, September 26, 2020 - link
I just realized I have never owned a 14nm product till end of 2019 as a laptop, i7 950, i5 4460, i7 4720HQ, i7 4790, and those lasted till I got this i7 9750H as AMD 4000's hadn't been released yet, desktops are 3600X and 3900X.Kind of crazy how well those CPU's stood the test of time, since I remember before my 950 upgrading about every 1.5 years.
szabikopy - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
Is the table on the 3rd page 100% legit?I’m asking because I’m not sure if intel mentioned that Alder lake will be manufactured on 10ESF.
If they did (and I just didn’t capture) then I’m more than a happy person. I just hope the next gen golden cove + 10 ESF will be great
Ahsan Qureshi - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
Yes. Alder Lake, Sapphire Rapids and Xe-HP will be manufactured on 10nmESF.Machinus - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
Ok, but when will they actually sell desktop chips? 10nm++++, according to your chart?Intel has become a broken clock. Tick-tok-tok-tok-tok...
dotjaz - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
But the original article about Atom still says 10SF. If it's indeed 10nm Mark II or 10+ as originally named, then where did the 10++ come from?soaringrocks - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
The problem is that line width of 14nm, 10nm, 7nm, etc. is a lousy way to describe Fab processes. It's worse than Apples vs. Oranges, it's more like Apples vs. Orangutans. Seeing people get overly hyped on process steps is just plain stupid. Look at the benchmarks for the apps you care about, that's all that really matters.