An Intel-TSMC CPU? Intel's Tile Architecture to Mix and Match Chip Tech

pcmag.com:

Starting in 2024, Intel CPUs for PCs will combine the company’s processor technology with silicon from other manufacturers on a single chip. 

Intel plans on debuting the new architecture with the Arrow Lake family, which will rely on the company’s 5-nanometer or Intel 20A manufacturing technologies. “Arrow Lake will be the first Intel product using Intel 20A tiles, as well as tiles made using an external process,” the chipmaker said during a Thursday investors event.

Intel previewed Arrow Lake a year after the company announced it would begin leveraging chip manufacturing giant TSMC to build some of its processors. At the time, the plan was to tap TSMC to “deliver additional leadership CPU products” for both PCs and data centers for 2023. 

Intel didn’t say which external manufacturers it’ll use to help build Arrow Lake chips. But a presentation slide used the words “External N3,” which suggests Intel will use the 3nm manufacturing process from TSMC, which produces chips for Apple and AMD. 

Intel plans on combining the different silicon through its 3D packaging technology, which can stack the chip tiles on top of each other.

"Using unique packaging technology, we can take the hybrid architecture that launched on Alder Lake and will be refreshed with Raptor Lake, and now disaggregate the tiles,” said Intel SVP Jim Johnson. “And now the tile can also match up with the unique process node capabilities, performance-leading nodes, IOs, things like that—stable, high-volume nodes that you can depend on."

Johnson called the tile approach “disaggregated architecture,” which promises to create chips that’ll offer top performance in “compute, AI and graphics” in a single package. “What that allows us to do is each tile can be