The 741 page annual report, released by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, takes aim at the Biden administration's Oct. 2022 export curbs, which seek to bar Chinese chipmakers from getting U.S. chipmaking tools if they would be used to manufacture advanced chips at the 14 nanometer node or below.

Canon's nanoimprint lithography (NIL) technology enables patterning with a minimum linewidth of 14nm, equivalent to the 5nm-node required to produce most advanced logic semiconductors which are currently available. Furthermore, with further improvement of mask technology, NIL is expected to enable circuit patterning with a minimum linewidth of 10 nm, which corresponds to 2nm-node.

Huawei has reportedly completed work on electronic design automation (EDA) tools for laying out and making chips down to 14nm process nodes.

Samsung Electronics has thus far been supplying 14nm chips produced using argon fluoride (ArF) photolithography to Tesla. Yet the two companies are expanding their cooperation to in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) products loaded with 5nm semiconductors.

Yet another 14nm CPU platform

According to SE Daily (via Google Translate), Intel and Samsung are in the final stages of negotiating for additional capacity. Intel is said to have chosen to work with Samsung over TSMC due to concerns about Huawei and AMD's improved competitive performance.

Looks like Intel is finally addressing AMD's Ryzen mainstream desktop processor threat with eight-core processors of its own later this year. The upcoming "Coffee Lake-S" chips will be based on 14nm process technology, and part of Intel's eighth-generation design refresh slated for the second half of 2018. The chips are now starting to appear in benchmarks although the speeds are merely preliminary, given they won't be finalized until the summer at the earliest.

Globalfoundries is now delivering in volume its 14nm High Performance (HP) technology that will enable IBM's next-generation of processors for server systems.

Underpinning all these delays and difficulties with new processes is the continued difficulty of developing production-ready extreme UV (EUV) lithography techniques.

When Intel added a third 14nm chip 2015, signalling the end of the company's vaunted "tick-tock" manufacturing process, the industry freaked out. A fourth, then, would be absolutely unprecedented.

After being the first to reach 22nm then subsequently 14nm FinFET, Intel's chip development pace has slowed considerably for the move to 10nm with many losing confidence in Intel's ability to maintain a chip manufacturing advantage over competitors such as TSMC, Samsung, and Globalfoundries.

Transistors on Intel's 10nm generation will still be denser than those on today's 14nm chips-as well as other companies' 10nm offerings, said Intel senior fellow Mark Bohr.

As Linley Gwennap, the head of the eponymous research firm Linley Group, sees it, the "16nm" technology of TSMC and the others "is really 19nm," and the planned 7nm "will be about 13nm relative to Intel processes." Intel, he concludes, is a "a full node" ahead of the foundries, "Just as they have been for the past decade."

It includes confidential information about Samsung's 14nm and 10nm fabrication processes.

Things are looking good for Intel through the end of 2016, according to BlueFin Research Partners's Steve Mullane, after reviewing what he deems production levels last month at the company's factories.

Korean newspaper Chosun Biz reported that Samsung had picked up a contract from Nvidia to manufacture Pascal GPUs. The manufacturing is set to begin before the end of 2016, and will use Samsung's patented 14-nanometer technology.

Samsung will have the thinner, 10-nanometer chipmaking technology in production later in 2016. Samsung also announced plans for a new cost-optimized 14-nanometer process as well as a second generation of 10-nanometer technology that it says will offer 10% better performance than the first generation.

I don't expect Intel to roll out server chips built on the company's 10nm technology to roll out in 2017; Intel is expected to introduce its second-generation 14nm server chip family in early to mid-2017. However, if Intel can get the process ramped at high yields during the second half of 2017 with PC-targeted products, it should bode well for a launch of 10nm server processors in the first half of 2018.

"Samsung is the sole supplier for all Qualcomm future 14nm chipsets and modems," Warren Lau, an analyst with Maybank Kim Eng in Hong Kong, said in emailed comments to EE Times. "This is also the case at 10nm."

A recent report by the folks at The Motley Fool suggests that Intel finally seems to have things under control for its high-end 14-nanometer Skylake desktop parts with improving yields and more stock on retail shelves.

Intel and TSMC have both started trial production for LG's own processor called Nuclun 2 using different methods.

Four Qualcomm VPs and execs absolutely denied that its new Snapdragon 820 was suffering from any thermal issues.

It's now being rumored that Keller has joined Samsung, where he'll begin work in the mobile processor division.

Following the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus last month, it was discovered that Apple is dual sourcing the A9 chip for the new devices from both TSMC and Samsung, with the chips from the two companies measuring at slightly different sizes due to different processes used in manufacturing the chips.

Globalfoundries has affirmed that progress for the company's 14nm FinFET manufacturing is not only on track but is actually ahead of schedule and 14nm has so far managed to exceed plans for yield and defect density

In a bid to catch up and potentially gain new customers, Globalfoundries licensed 14nm LPE and 14nm LPP technologies from Samsung Electronics. However, going forward Globalfoundries hopes to develop its own manufacturing processes.

AMD has allegedly decided to delegate the responsibility of producing its hotly anticipated Zen CPU chips to TSMC on its 16nm FinFET process. This development has allegedly unfolded amidst AMD fears of Globalfoundries' slow 14nm FinFET yield and capacity progress.

Intel's Cannonlake, originally slated for 2016 and later 2017, is now on hold indefinitely. Instead, Intel's current processors - of the Skylake platform - will be succeeded by the less drastic Kaby Lake platform.

China's Spreadtrum Communications will use Intel's 14nm FinFET process technology for both the low- and high-end mobile chips the company plans to launch in 2016, according to Spreadtrum chairman and CEO Leo Li.

Samsung is already pushing out 14nm technology, using its own Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge smartphones to demonstrate its impressive new fabrication technology. But most don't know that the South Korean electronics giant has partnered with Globalfoundries, with the latter now spinning up its production of 14nm technology.

TSMC will snatch more orders for Apple's A9 processor at the expense of Samsung, which is having yield problems with its most advanced technology node, according to sources interviewed by EE Times.

Intel will describe what it claims are some of the world's smallest DRAM and I/O circuits here this week, a testament to its 14nm process technology. In a preview of at least five papers at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, one Intel executive also continued to express optimism about the company's work on 10nm and 7nm nodes.

The faster time to market for Samsung's 14nm process as well as potentially slightly bigger performance or power consumption benefits on TSMC's 16nm process must have convinced Apple that it's worth going back to Samsung.

Globalfoundries and industry analyst Jim McGregor say production of a faster, smaller chip known as the 14-nanometer is on schedule at its Fab 8 factory in Malta, New York.

While I do think building the entire stack on 14-nanometers will afford Intel a manufacturing lead, and perhaps performance lead, over competitors, the important thing here is that Intel has a complete stack that it can offer to its customers. This means Intel can be a one-stop shop for smartphone and tablet OEMs looking to build out a family of products, as Qualcomm is today.