Intel 2022 Investor Conference: Announcement of technology roadmap and important nodes
At Intel’s 2022 Investor Conference, Intel CEO Pat Kissinger and the heads of various business units outlined the company’s development strategy and the main content of its long-term growth plan. In an era of strong demand for semiconductors, Intel’s many long-term plans will fully grasp the opportunities for transformational growth. In the speech, Intel announced the product roadmap and important execution nodes of its main business units, including six major areas: data center and artificial intelligence, client computing, accelerated computing systems and graphics, Intel foundry services, software and advanced Technology, Networks and the Edge.
Data Centers and Artificial Intelligence
Intel’s Data Center and Artificial Intelligence (DCAI) Group has announced a roadmap for upcoming next-generation Intel® Xeon products for 2022-2024. Intel will build a strong data center ecosystem with industry-leading software and hardware capabilities and lead new advances in artificial intelligence and security. Intel’s data center plans will not only enable it to gain new share in fast-growing markets such as artificial intelligence, networking and systems encryption, but also increase data center revenue through industry-leading Xeon products.
Intel Xeon Product Roadmap Update – Intel’s next-generation Xeon product roadmap includes:
Sapphire Rapids – Beginning in the first quarter of 2022, Intel will deliver Sapphire Rapids processors built on the Intel 7 process process and bring to market Intel’s most feature-rich Xeon processor to date. Sapphire Rapids will dramatically improve performance across a broad range of workloads, delivering up to 30x performance gains in AI alone.
Emerald Rapids – Scheduled to be available in 2023, Emerald Rapids is a next-generation Xeon processor built on the Intel 7 process technology that will enhance performance while further enhancing the memory and security advantages of existing platforms.
New Architecture Strategy – Future Xeon generations will have a dual-track product roadmap based on both performance cores (P-cores) and energy efficiency cores (E-cores) to integrate the two optimized platforms into a common, industry-defining development platform. This new architectural strategy will maximize the performance per watt and segmented functions of the product, thereby enhancing Intel’s overall competitiveness in the industry.
Sierra Forest – In 2024, Intel will launch the revolutionary new energy-efficient Xeon processor Sierra Forest, a leading product with high density and ultra-energy-efficient performance based on Intel 3 process technology.
Granite Rapids – Based on confidence in Intel 3 process technology, Intel announced that it will upgrade the process technology of Granite Rapids processors from Intel 4 to Intel 3. This next-generation performance core Xeon processor product will be available in 2024, which will further strengthen Intel’s overall leadership in the industry.
client computing
Intel’s Client Computing Group (CCG) outlines the client products that will be introduced in the next few years. As the PC continues to enjoy unprecedented importance, Intel expects the Client Computing Group to continue to be a major driver of Intel’s growth. In 2021, Intel’s global PC shipments will exceed 340 million, a 27% increase from 2019. Intel expects PC market demand to remain strong and continue to grow, mainly from the growing demand for replacement of existing customer bases and the increase in PC ownership and penetration around the world.
Client Computing Group Roadmap Update – Building on today’s leading products, Intel’s next-generation client product roadmap includes:
Raptor Lake – Raptor Lake is expected to be officially available in the second half of 2022, and compared to Alder Lake, it will bring 2-digit performance improvements and stronger overclocking capabilities. The Raptor Lake configuration will be upgraded to a maximum of 24 cores and 32 threads, using Intel 7 process technology and a high-performance hybrid architecture. Raptor Lake and Alder Lake systems will be socket compatible.
Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake – Meteor Lake will use the Intel 4 process technology. Arrow Lake will be the first to be built on Intel 20A chips, and will also be manufactured using external process technology. These two products, which integrate artificial intelligence and graphics card chips that bring discrete graphics-level performance, will achieve a huge breakthrough in the direction of XPU. Meteor Lake will be available in 2023, followed by Arrow Lake in 2024.
Lunar Lake and more – To advance the IDM 2.0 strategy, Intel will use both internal and external process nodes to develop best-in-class products.
Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics
Three sub-segments of the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group (AXG) are shipping products on schedule and are expected to generate more than $1 billion in revenue for the company in 2022. As Intel’s growth engine, the three sub-sectors of the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group are expected to collectively generate nearly $10 billion in revenue by 2026.
Visual Computing Product Roadmap and Strategic Planning
Intel Sharp™ Graphics Time Node and Roadmap Update – The Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Division expects to ship more than 4 million discrete GPUs in 2022. OEMs will release laptops with Intel Sharp™ Graphics (codenamed Alchemist) in the first quarter of 2022. Intel will ship discrete graphics for desktops in the second quarter and discrete graphics for workstations in the third quarter. In addition, CelesTIal, which is aimed at the super enthusiast market, has officially started its architecture research and development.
Endgame project – Through the services of Endgame project, users can directly read the information of Intel Sharp Display™ graphics card, and obtain a computing experience that is accessible at any time and with low latency. Project Endgame will officially go live later this year.
Supercomputing product roadmap and strategic planning – Currently, more than 85% of the world’s supercomputers are powered by Intel® Xeon® processors. On this basis, the Accelerated Computing System and Graphics Division will further achieve higher computing power and memory bandwidth, and deliver industry-leading CPU and GPU product roadmaps to empower high-performance computing (HPC) and AI workloads . As of now, Intel expects to receive more than 35 HPC-AI designs from leading OEMs and cloud service providers (CSPs). In addition, the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Division has formulated a technical roadmap to achieve Z-class computing by 2027.
Sapphire Rapids with Built-in High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) – Sapphire Rapids with built-in high-bandwidth memory can provide applications with up to 4 times the memory bandwidth compared to 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors. up to 2.8 times the performance improvement. In addition, in the same computational fluid dynamics application scenario, the performance of Sapphire Rapids with built-in high-bandwidth memory is also 2.8 times higher than that of similar solutions.
Ponte Vecchio – The Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group will deliver Ponte Vecchio GPUs for the Aurora supercomputer project later this year as planned. For complex financial services workloads, Ponte Vecchio achieved industry-leading performance standards and demonstrated 2.6x better performance than market-leading solutions.
ArcTIc Sound-M – ArcTIc Sound-M is Intel’s first GPU with a hardware AV1 encoder, enabling a 30% increase in bandwidth; it also features an industry-leading open source media solution. A supercomputer for media and analytics that will enable high-quality transcoding, streaming density, and cloud gaming. The ArcTIc Sound-M is sampling to customers now and is expected to ship in mid-2022.
Falcon Shores – Falcon Shores is a new architecture that integrates x86 and Xe graphics cards in the same slot. Scheduled to be available in 2024, this architecture will deliver more than 5x performance improvements in performance per watt, compute density, memory capacity and bandwidth.
Custom Computing Division – The Custom Computing Division, part of the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics business unit, will develop custom products for many emerging workloads including blockchain, edge supercomputing, high-end in-vehicle infotainment and immersive displays.
Intel Foundry Services
The automotive industry is currently undergoing a profound transformation as cars become more electric, safer, smarter and more connected than ever before. These trends are driving considerable growth, with revenues from the automotive semiconductor industry doubling to an estimated $115 billion in 2030. Today, incomplete supply chains and traditional process technology will not be able to support the growing demand and transition to more compute-intensive applications. To this end, Intel Foundry Services (IFS) is assembling a dedicated automotive team to provide automakers with complete solutions, focusing on three areas:
Open Central Computing Architecture – Intel Foundry Services (IFS) will develop a high-performance, open automotive computing platform to help automotive OEMs build next-generation experiences and solutions. This open computing architecture will leverage chiplet-based building blocks, as well as Intel’s advanced packaging technologies, to provide significant flexibility for building optimized solutions for technology nodes, algorithms, software, and applications to meet the following requirements: The computing needs of a generation of self-driving cars.
Automotive-grade foundry platform – Intel will enable manufacturing technology to meet the stringent quality requirements of automotive applications and customers. The goal of Intel Foundry Services (IFS) is to combine advanced process and technology optimization with advanced packaging for microcontrollers and unique automotive needs to help customers design many types of automotive semiconductors. As a leader in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) solutions, Mobileye has extensive experience in automotive-grade products, and the partnership with Mobileye enables Intel Foundry Services (IFS) to deliver advanced process technologies to automotive customers.
Enabling the Transition to Advanced Technology – Intel Foundry Services (IFS) will provide automakers with design services and Intel’s IP, enabling them to leverage Intel’s expertise in chip-to-system design. The Intel Foundry Services Accelerator Program’s automotive program, announced last year, is designed to help automotive chipmakers transition to advanced process and packaging technologies and innovate with Intel’s custom, industry-standard-based IP portfolio.
Software and Advanced Technology
Software is a key component of Intel’s competitive advantage, adding value to the entire software stack across Intel’s client, edge, cloud and data center businesses. Intel’s approach is to foster an open ecosystem that ensures trust, selectivity and interoperability within the industry and is a catalyst for technology adoption and innovation. Intel’s investments in software also present disruptive and transformative growth opportunities.
Cross-platform, open development – The Intel oneAPI toolkit provides a cross-platform, open programming model that empowers developers to solve unique challenges with optimized performance.
Solving Challenges with AI – The convergence of security and AI shows great promise for open and collaborative frameworks that help protect data while gaining insights. Intel® Core™ processors and Intel® vPRO™ systems use Intel® Threat Detection Technology (Intel® TDT) to detect malware behavior beneath the operating system and provide these insights to endpoint detection and response solutions. For confidential computing in the cloud, 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® processors with Intel® Software Guard Extensions (Intel® SGX) protect data and AI models so they can aggregate data and gather deeper insights to solve challenging Sexual problems, such as identifying brain tumors.
Network and Edge
Network and edge computing are developing rapidly. To accelerate growth and drive the transition to software-defined and fully programmable infrastructure, Intel launched the Networking and Edge Group (NEX) in 2021. Intel expects that the revenue growth rate of the network and edge business will exceed the growth rate of the total addressable market in the next decade, which will make an important contribution to the overall growth of the company. To capitalize on this opportunity, Network & Edge is introducing programmable hardware and open software from the cloud to the Internet and 5G networks to the intelligent edge.
Smart Fabric – The Intel® Smart Fabric Programmable Platform enables customers to program end-to-end network behavior through infrastructure within the data center, driving business opportunities and putting control in the customer’s hands to provide a path to network programming . This enables customers to continuously develop, improve and differentiate their infrastructure according to their needs. In addition, this creates a future with an entirely new type of computing device, the Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU). This computing device can be integrated into data centers, accelerating cloud infrastructure development and maximizing performance.
Mobile Network Transformation – For more than a decade, Intel has been leading the transformation of telecom networks and driving global networks beyond the constraints of traditional fixed-function hardware to be defined by open, interoperable software. Intel’s ambitious goal is to provide customers with the industry’s most cutting-edge, broad-based programmable platform to drive business opportunities and put control in the hands of developers to support the buildout of 5G and more advanced technologies.
Accelerating the Intelligent Edge—Intel helps customers deliver intelligent edge platforms by offering a diverse hardware and software portfolio and a vast partner ecosystem. The Intel Networking and Edge Group supports new use cases and workloads across a range of vertical industry markets to meet the growing demand for computing and analytics at the intelligent edge. AI—especially inference at the edge—can provide useful insights in real-time, right where and when the data is produced. As such, it is gradually becoming the most common use case for edge computing, transforming and automating factories, smart cities, hospitals, and more.
technological progress
Intel expects to lead the industry again in transistor performance per watt by 2025. Intel’s advanced test and packaging technologies give us a unique industry leadership position that benefits our product and foundry customers and plays a key role in the relentless advancement of Moore’s Law. Continuous innovation is the cornerstone of Moore’s Law, and innovation is everywhere at Intel.
Process – With the introduction of 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processors, and others coming in 2022, Intel 7 is in production and shipping in volume. Intel 4 will use extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) technology and is expected to enter production in the second half of 2022, and its transistors will improve performance per watt by about 20%. The Intel 3 will have more features and deliver about an 18% increase in performance per watt and is expected to enter production in the second half of 2023. Through the two technologies of RibbonFET and PowerVia to open the Amy era, Intel 20A will achieve about 15% improvement in performance per watt, and will
It will start production in the first half of 2024. The Intel 18A will achieve about a 10% improvement in performance per watt and is expected to enter production in the second half of 2024.
Packaging – Intel’s leadership in advanced packaging technology provides designers with multiple choices across thermal, power, high-speed signaling and interconnect density to maximize and optimize product performance. In 2022, Intel expects to deliver leading packaging technologies at Sapphire Rapids and Ponte Vecchio, and pilot production at Meteor Lake. Foveros Omni and Foveros Direct are advanced packaging technologies announced by Intel at the July 2021 “Intel Accelerated Innovation: Process Technology and Packaging Technology Online Conference” and are expected to be put into production in 2023.
Innovation – When looking at technologies such as High-NA EUV, RibbonFET, PowerVia, Foveros Omni, and Foveros Direct, Intel realizes that innovation never ends, so Moore’s Law will continue. Intel is expected to deliver about a trillion transistors in a single device by 2030, and we’re working tirelessly to make that happen.