Intel 4 20 Percent Performance Gain Over Intel 7 Confirmed

During Intel Architecture Day 2021, the company showcased the product roadmap for the next few years. Intel also showcased the nomenclature for the manufacturing process such as Intel 7, which is used on the current Alder Lake CPU that uses a combination of efficient cores and performance cores.

Intel Technology has now shared yet another update on their upcoming manufacturing technology -- Intel 4, which will be the successor to the Intel 7. The tweet confirms that Intel 4 offers 20 percent more performance per watt when compared to Intel 7 manufacturing process.

In a short video, the company confirms that it has already done wafer testing using Intel 4, where, features like internal cache, logic, and analog content are working per spec on healthy silicon.

Intel 4 Details

Intel 4 was previously known as 7nm, which makes full use of EUV lithography. Intel has also confirmed that the processors manufactured using Intel 4 will hit the market in Q2 2021 on Meteor Lake for client tape, which will also be used in Granite Rapids compute tile for the data center.

Silicon manufacturers like Samsung and Exynos have always been used to manufacture 5nm processors, which currently power flagship Android smartphones and Apple devices like the iPhone 12, new MacBook Air M1, and the MacBook Pro with M1 Pro or M1 Max.

Intel 4 utilizes EUV lithography and delivers a 20% performance per watt gain. Wafer testing shows internal cache, logic, and analog content are all working per spec – healthy silicon! pic.twitter.com/iaMYRZMi9x

— Intel Technology (@IntelTech) November 11, 2021

Intel is expecting to get a transistor density of 200 to 250 million per mm square of silicon using Intel 4, which makes it denser than the TSMCs 5nm fabrication technology, which offers over 170 million transistors per mm square.

Intel will start manufacturing processors using the Intel 4 technology by the end of 2022, and these chips will hit the market by early 2023. The company has also confirmed that Intel will launch consumer products using Intel 7 under Meteor Lake, and the server-grade products will be fabbed under Granite Rapids naming.

After Intel 4, we will also have technologies like Intel 3, which is said to be an optimized version of the Intel 4, which is said to offer over 18 percent performance improvement over the Intel 4. Products using Intel 3 will hit the market by 2024 and then will come Intel 20A.