Laptops with Intel's 10nm Ice Lake Chips are Expected to Arrive In Stores For 2019 Holiday Shoppers

Intel's consternation with its 10nm manufacturing process is well documented but on its Q1 earnings call yesterday, the Santa Clara chip giant painted a more positive picture on the ramp-up of its forthcoming Ice Lake processor for mobile client systems, dubbed Ice Lake-U. While many media outlets have been reporting that Intel's 10nm product wouldn't ship in meaningful volume this year, Intel CEO Bob Swan offered commentary that production output of Ice Lake has nearly doubled in the past few months.

Swan noted specifically, “on the process technology front, our teams executed well in Q1 and our velocity is increasing. We remain on track to have volume client systems on shelves for the holiday selling season. And over the past 4 months, the organization drove a nearly 2X improvement in the rate at which 10nm products move through our factories.” Beyond this, I would offer that Intel is in the process of qualifying the product with major system OEMs here in Q2, with production shipments expected likely in Q3 for retail-ready laptop system availability to consumers in Q4. Read more at Forbes