Stefan Mileschin

ARM boss Warren East is having fun pulling the tail of Chipzilla.

After a quarter's good results, East feels that he can start having a laugh at Intel's expense.

He pointed out to EE Times that Intel does not have the manufacturing advantage in SoCs.

East said that Intel is manufacturing using 32-nm high-k metal gate planar CMOS, while TSMC is manufacturing using 28-nm high-k metal gate.

This does not sound like a massive lead to him and that you could argue that TSMC is ahead.

Just to rub it in a little more East added that Intel would have a tough time to create 22-nm FinFET technology for SoC.

Intel's 22 nm FinFET for SOCs is scheduled to arrive in 2013, with the next shrink anticipated for 2014.

East knows that Chipzilla is pretty good at delivering on its road map and tends to do better when it is in the middle of a fight.

Intel has not got FinFET and ARM protypes are expected in late 2013 or early 2014. East admits that he has not got a clue when it will happen.

So in other words, East was bragging on behalf of his partners, all of which are ahead of Intel and have market superiority at this moment in time. He thinks.

Our guess is that East can see the winter coming, but just wants to make the most of the autumn while he can. It means that he can spend at least a year laughing at Intel before Chipzilla can turn around and bite him. Mind you, East plans to retire at the end of the year so he will not be around to see the terrible jaws and claws which will gnaw on his successor.

http://news.techeye.net/chips/arm-ru...ood-results-in