Heads Roll At Intel Over Manufacturing Missteps In Major Division Shake-Up

Intel this week announced a major shakeup in its manufacturing division amid continuing delays in rolling out its 10nm processors. Intel has been building chips on its 14nm process since 2014 and the company has indicated that its 10nm CPUs won’t be ready for volume production until 2019. In order to get its house in order, Intel is splitting up its manufacturing unit; the company announced its plans to employees on Monday.

The Intel Manufacturing and Technology group will be chopped into three components: technology development, manufacturing and operations, and supply chain. Tech development will be led by Mike Mayberry, Intel's CTO and head of Intel Labs. Mayberry is replacing Rich Uhlig who currently heads Intel Labs, but Uhlig will continue managing Intel Labs on an interim basis as Mayberry moves in. While the manufacturing unit has been chopped up, the man who has been jointly leading the manufacturing arm since 2016, Sohail Ahmed, will retire next month. The assumption is that Ahmed is taking at least some of the Intel ire for its long-delayed 10nm parts, which were originally supposed to launch in 2015. 

Ann Kelleher will run the manufacturing arm; she has been the joint leader of the technology and manufacturing group with Ahmed. Intel's supply chain segment will be run by Randhir Thakur. All of these new segments will be under the direction of Venkata "Murthy" Renduchintala, who has been with Intel since 2015 after leaving Qualcomm. Renduchintala is currently the chief engineering officer for Intel and is president of several Intel businesses, including manufacturing.

Intel's recently launched 9th gen Core i9 parts are built on a refined 14nm process called 14nm++. Intel has traditionally introduced a new class of processors on a two-year cycle adhering to Moore's Law, but increasing complexity in shrinking chips has seen that two-year cycle lengthen dramatically.