Intel Innovation 2023: Day 1 Keynote Live Blog

It is time to bang the big AI-generated computational bong — welcome to Intel Innovation, where company leaders and technologists rally developers around Intel’s latest hardware, software and services.  

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger kicks off the festivities with a live presentation to mark the rise of the “Siliconomy,” a new era of economic expansion enabled by sustainable, open and secure computing power. For developers, the Siliconomy means a new world of opportunity. 

Live Blog: Follow along for a live report on the talk, the guests, the demonstrations and plenty of news.

9:15 a.m.: There’s more innovation on the horizon. Wafer sighting! “Fresh out of the fab with our Arrow Lake processor,” Pat says, built on Intel 20A. “It’s working as expected.” Pat has chip design superpowers — he can tell the chips are healthy just holding the wafer.

We’re also working on Lunar Lake, Pat says, set for production readiness in 2024. Lunar Lake, shown earlier, promises more AI and “a new architecture designed from the ground up for mobility.”

First up: 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® processors, “launching together with Intel Core Ultra on Dec. 14.” I told you: Save that date!

He says that Rewind.ai aims “to give humans superpowers.” It’s like an assistant with perfect memory: Rewind.ai runs in the background capturing your screen and audio, then compresses, transcribes, encrypts and stores your data locally so only you have access.

Then you can ask it questions or give it tasks, like write up notes from a meeting or compose an email. 

9:40 a.m.: Just as “cloud-native” applications followed the rise of the cloud, we’re now seeing “a new class of ‘edge-native’ applications,” Pat says. But the wide diversification of systems outside the data center complicates building and managing these apps.

9:51 a.m.: “These innovations are powered by Moore’s Law,” Pat reminds us. An this being Silicon Valley, it’s wafer time again. Intel’s “five nodes in four years” plan is “progressing very well,” Pat confirms, alongside work “on the future beyond 2025.”

Pat ticks through status on the first four nodes: Intel 7 is done ✅; Intel 4 is done ✅ and now heading over to Ireland for high-volume ramp of the Intel Core Ultra chip; Intel 3 will be manufacturing-ready by the end of this year — Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids, the first products on Intel 3, are sampling to customers and on track; and Intel 20A is on track to be manufacturing ready next year.

9:53 a.m.: Last, but not least, is 18A, Pat says, “the Picasso” of wafers. Pat’s got an 18A wafer to show, too. It’s a beaut, Clark!

The 0.9 PDK or process development kit is “imminent” and many 18A test chips and shuttles for both internal and foundry customers are running in the fab. 

Ericsson will use Intel 18A for its future custom 5G SoC, Pat says, and “Intel is intensively working with Arm.”

On the menu after 18A, Pat explains, are enhanced RibbonFET transistors, next-generation PowerVia for backside power and new features requested by foundry customers, like a high-voltage transistor.

9:55 a.m.: Intel has an uncommon affinity for sand, which got another boost yesterday: Intel announced industry-first breakthroughs in glass substrates that will enable continued scaling well beyond 2030, Pat says.

With wafers and packaging, we’ve got the whole semiconductor manufacturing process on stage. Let’s make some chips!