Dallas, Texas 07/17/2015 (Financialstrend) – Analysts are raising concerns that a further delay in the launch of the next-generation chip technology could leave Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) vulnerable to losing market share to its rivals that are slowly catching up. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Samsung Electronics have invested heavily in their manufacturing processes expected as they try to give Intel a run for its money in the highly competitive business.
Six Month Delay
The warning came on Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) announcing a delay of six months in the launch of its 10-nanometer chip manufacturing process. The delay essentially shows that the chip giant is struggling to keep up with the Moore’s law that calls for the doubling of the processing power every two years. As Intel continues to falter, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) has confirmed that it has made a breakthrough on producing chips that have 7nm components.
The delay also means that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is taking approximately 2.5 years to come up with a new release, providing a window of opportunity for its rivals to play catch-up. Shrinking transistor gates down to 10nm and producing reliable chips that can fit into PCs and servers is turning out to be a hard nut to crack for the company.
Ongoing Challenges
Shrinking of the transistors to 10nm should be a major milestone for the industry as this is expected to lower the dynamic power consumption while safely driving the clock rate. Each new process size continues to enhance performance while bringing new features to the processor core. However Intel’s CEO, Brian Krzanich admits that the lithography is becoming extremely difficult as the number of multi-pattern steps being carried out continues to increase.
Investors are now questioning whether Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) will be able to maintain its unassailable manufacturing dominance having twice delayed the launch of the 10nm technology. However, the chip giant could take heart from the fact that its rivals TSMC and Samsung Electronics are poised to launch their 10nm chip nodes sometime in 2016 or early 2017.
