Intel 18A Node Boosts Performance by 25% with Same Power Consumption as Intel 3 Node

Intel is betting on its next manufacturing node, Intel 18A, which will be used to manufacture upcoming processors such as Intel Panther Lake and Intel Xeon 7, which we might see later this year. During the VLSI Symposium held in Japan, Intel revealed that mass production of this node is expected in the second half of this year, with figures showing up to a 25% increase in performance, along with a 40% reduction in power consumption.

Power and Performance Advancements with Intel 18A Node

The figures presented by the manufacturer indicate that, at a voltage of 1.1 volts, clock speed can be increased by up to 25% while maintaining the same power consumption. This figure can be reduced by up to 40% if the power consumption is lowered to 0.75 V, where performance is still improved by 18%. These improvements are made possible by technology that combines Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors with a PowerVia power delivery system.

This type of backside power delivery reduces the interconnection steps between layers, allowing for a reduction in space down to the top layer. Specifically, the cells optimized for performance measure 180 nanometers, while high-density cells are 160 nanometers. The number of metal layers has been reduced to 11 and 16 nanometers with Intel 18A, and the gap between layers M1 and M10 is now 32 nanometers.

Intel has also utilized EUV technology, which reduces the number of masks needed by 44%, simplifying the manufacturing process for this node. Intel also conducted tests comparing the performance of this node with Arm cores, where the Intel node 18A showed a 15% increase in performance while maintaining the same power consumption.