AlphaAtlas
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2018
- Messages
- 1,713
Intel is suffering from a 14nm silicon shortage right now, and some industry figures think that boxed DIY processor sales are getting hit particularly hard. Last year, analysts expected the shortage to persist well into the first half 2019, but now, Digitimes Research believes that the supply issues are only going to get worse in Q2. While industry supply gaps are expected to drop from over 10% in Q4 2018 to 2-3% in Q1 2019, that gap is expected to grow 1-2 points in Q2 2019, without a significant increase in total shipments. Quad-core Kaby Lake-R silicon bound for Core i5 models was particularly hard to get in Q4 2018, and some white box manufacturers in China have reportedly been "denied any supply of Intel's entry-level processors since September 2018," but Coffee Lake-based i5s and Chromebook processors are supposedly seeing the worst supply shortfalls right now. Intel is working on bringing more 14nm capacity online to alleviate the supply issues by the 3rd quarter of this year, but until then, AMD's market share in worldwide notebook shipments is expected to increase as laptop makers search for alternatives to mainstream Intel CPUs. AMD reportedly has a 15.8% share of notebook shipments in Q1 2019, and it's expected to peak at 18% in Q2 before dropping in subsequent quarters.
Of course, given the age of Intel's 14nm process, one of the biggest questions hanging in the air is how, and when, Intel will move production to smaller nodes. At CES, Intel committed to shipping 10nm mobile processors in 2019. However, Digitimes Research's supply chain sources claim that "there are still many issues with the CPU giant's mass production schedule for 10nm process," and the researchers themselves think that Intel "could shift its investments directly to 7nm process development, skipping 10nm."
Apollo Lake- and Gemini Lake-based processors for the entry-level segment were second worst in terms of shortages as Intel had shifted most of its capacity to make high-end processors that offered better profit. Lenovo, which primarily focuses on mid-range and entry-level models, had a supply gap of hundreds of thousands CPUs in the second half of the year. White-box players in China have even been denied any supply of Intel's entry-level processors since September 2018. Apple's latest MacBook Air released at the end of October 2018, which exclusively uses Intel's 14nm Amber Lake processor, was reportedly also a victim of the CPU shortages. With the notebook market entering the slow season in the first quarter of 2019 and many vendors having increased their adoption of AMD's solutions, the overall CPU supply gap in the notebook market is expected to shrink to around 3%. Taiwan vendors are still seeing their gaps at above 5%, but HP, Dell and Lenovo's percentages will drop dramatically. Dell has even freed itself from the shortage issue... Intel is expected to have new 14nm capacity join production in the second half of 2019. Intel's existing 14nm fabs are mainly located in the US and Ireland and the newly expanded capacity in Arizona, the US is expected to begin volume production in July or August, to boost Intel's overall 14nm capacity by 25% and completely resolve the shortage problem.
Of course, given the age of Intel's 14nm process, one of the biggest questions hanging in the air is how, and when, Intel will move production to smaller nodes. At CES, Intel committed to shipping 10nm mobile processors in 2019. However, Digitimes Research's supply chain sources claim that "there are still many issues with the CPU giant's mass production schedule for 10nm process," and the researchers themselves think that Intel "could shift its investments directly to 7nm process development, skipping 10nm."
Apollo Lake- and Gemini Lake-based processors for the entry-level segment were second worst in terms of shortages as Intel had shifted most of its capacity to make high-end processors that offered better profit. Lenovo, which primarily focuses on mid-range and entry-level models, had a supply gap of hundreds of thousands CPUs in the second half of the year. White-box players in China have even been denied any supply of Intel's entry-level processors since September 2018. Apple's latest MacBook Air released at the end of October 2018, which exclusively uses Intel's 14nm Amber Lake processor, was reportedly also a victim of the CPU shortages. With the notebook market entering the slow season in the first quarter of 2019 and many vendors having increased their adoption of AMD's solutions, the overall CPU supply gap in the notebook market is expected to shrink to around 3%. Taiwan vendors are still seeing their gaps at above 5%, but HP, Dell and Lenovo's percentages will drop dramatically. Dell has even freed itself from the shortage issue... Intel is expected to have new 14nm capacity join production in the second half of 2019. Intel's existing 14nm fabs are mainly located in the US and Ireland and the newly expanded capacity in Arizona, the US is expected to begin volume production in July or August, to boost Intel's overall 14nm capacity by 25% and completely resolve the shortage problem.