14nm 팹에 추가 투자를 하는 인텔

인텔의 임시 CEO인 밥 스완(Bob swan) CFO가 인텔이 직면한 CPU 공급 부족을 타개하기 위해 10억 달러를 추가로 투자해 14nm 팹의 생산능력을 끌어올릴 것이라고 밝혔습니다. 이스라엘, 아일랜드, 오레건주, 애리조나주에 있는 팹에 투자가 이뤄져 CPU 공급 부족을 해소할 것이라고 합니다. 아래는 공개서한 전문입니다. 

An Open Letter from Bob Swan, Intel CFO and Interim CEO

To our customers and partners,

The first half of this year showed remarkable growth for our industry. I want to take a moment to recap where we’ve been, offer our sincere thanks and acknowledge the work underway to support you with performance-leading Intel products to help you innovate.

First, the situation … The continued explosion of data and the need to process, store, analyze and share it is driving industry innovation and incredible demand for compute performance in the cloud, the network and the enterprise. In fact, our data-centric businesses grew 25 percent through June, and cloud revenue grew a whopping 43 percent in the first six months. The performance of our PC-centric business has been even more surprising. Together as an industry, our products are convincing buyers it’s time to upgrade to a new PC. For example, second-quarter PC shipments grew globally for the first time in six years, according to Gartner. We now expect modest growth in the PC total addressable market (TAM) this year for the first time since 2011, driven by strong demand for gaming as well as commercial systems – a segment where you and your customers trust and count on Intel.

We are thrilled that in an increasingly competitive market, you keep choosing Intel. Thank you.

Now for the challenge… The surprising return to PC TAM growth has put pressure on our factory network. We’re prioritizing the production of Intel® Xeon® and Intel® Core™ processors so that collectively we can serve the high-performance segments of the market. That said, supply is undoubtedly tight, particularly at the entry-level of the PC market. We continue to believe we will have at least the supply to meet the full-year revenue outlook we announced in July, which was $4.5 billion higher than our January expectations.

To address this challenge, we’re taking the following actions:

We are investing a record $15 billion in capital expenditures in 2018, up approximately $1 billion from the beginning of the year. We’re putting that $1 billion into our 14nm manufacturing sites in Oregon, Arizona, Ireland and Israel. This capital along with other efficiencies is increasing our supply to respond to your increased demand.

We’re making progress with 10nm. Yields are improving and we continue to expect volume production in 2019.

We are taking a customer-first approach. We’re working with your teams to align demand with available supply. You can expect us to stay close, listen, partner and keep you informed.

The actions we are taking have put us on a path of continuous improvement. At the end of the day, we want to help you make great products and deliver strong business results. Many of you have been longtime Intel customers and partners, and you have seen us at our best when we are solving problems.

Sincerely,

Bob Swan

Intel Corporation CFO and Interim CEO

새로운 공정도 아니고 이미 오래된 14nm 공정 프로세서 공급이 부족해진 이유는 데이터 센터에서 수요가 크게 증가한 탓입니다. PC 시장의 위축에도 서버용 제온 칩의 수요는 매우 견실하게 증가했습니다. 특히 28코어 제온이 등장할 정도로 칩의 크기도 커지면서 웨이퍼 당 생산할 수 있는 CPU의 숫자가 감소했습니다. 여기에 6 코어 커피레이크를 비롯 소비자용 CPU도 AMD와 경쟁을 위해 커지면서 예상보다 공급이 부족한 것으로 보입니다. 

물론 이 문제의 배경 가운데 하나는 10nm 이하 미세공정 이전이 예상대로 진행되지 못하고 연기된 것도 있습니다. 현재 가동 중인 10nm 팹은 소량씩 제품을 생산하고 있어 제 역할을 못하고 있습니다. 만약 10nm 공정으로 이전이 예정대로 진행됐다면 CPU 다이 사이즈를 크게 줄일 수 있어 웨이퍼 부족을 상당부분 해소할 수 있었습니다. 

밥 스완은 10nm 공정 이전이 내년에는 진행될 것이라고 밝혔습니다. 하지만 이전에도 연기를 밥 먹듯이 계속해 왔기 때문에 실제 제품을 출시하지 않는 이상 이제는 누구도 믿지 않을 것 같습니다. 세계 반도체 선두 기업이었던 인텔이 왜 이렇게 됐는지 답답합니다. 

 참고 

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13410/intel-investing-1b-to-meet-14nm-demand-prioritizing-highend-core-and-xeon