Newsflash: Intel's all-important 18A node is officially 'ready' but what exactly happened to the 'five nodes in four years' thing?
«Intel 18A is now ready.» So proclaims a new landing page on Intel's website for the company's all-important new 18A chip production node. But what does it mean for the PC?
We already knew that Intel's next laptop chip, Panther Lake, is due to be made, at least in part, on the new 18A node. That's supposed to be going into volume production later this year, though we're not expecting 18A-powered laptops until early 2026.
Intel's next desktop CPU, codenamed Nova Lake, is likewise a 2026 product according to Intel. So, what to make of Intel's claims of immediate 18A readiness?
The new web portal is arguably more aimed at customers for its nascent foundry business than bigging up its own chips. «Intel 18A is now ready for customer projects with the tape outs beginning in the first half of 2025,» the website says.
In terms of in-house chips, Intel does call out the Clearwater Forest server CPU as an example of «18A in action» on the new website. Clearwater Forest was originally on Intel's roadmaps as a 2025 product. However, at the end of January, Intel pushed Clearwater Forest back to the first half of 2026, which doesn't exactly seem like a huge vote of confidence in 18A.
Of course, 18A is the final part of Intel's bold «five nodes in four years» plan (also known as 5N4Y), which kicked off with Intel 7, then went to Intel 4 as used in the Meteor Lake mobile CPU, followed by Intel 3, Intel 20A and finally Intel 18A.
It was mid-2021 when Intel's then-new-but-now-departed CEO Pat Gelsinger floated the idea. That means 18A needs to be ready for summer 2025 to be on track. With that in mind, the cynic might conclude that 18A's announced readiness for customers, all the while Intel doesn't seem to be able to get one of its own chips on 18A ready, is something of a PR stunt.
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Arguably, you might conclude that about 5N4Y in general. Looking at each of the nodes in turn, Intel 7
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