This $380 million machine could make your next Intel CPU

Intel has installed its first High-NA EUV machine from ASML, and it could build the next-generation of Intel CPUs

Silicon giant Intel has released what could be the most expensive unboxing video ever produced. Intel has just installed a TWINSCAN EXE:5200 High-NA EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) lithography machine from ASML. This high production machine costs $380 million, and will power Intel’s continued transistor innovations.

In the video below, Intel showcases how they received and installed one of the most expensive pieces of technology in existence. Today’s EUV machines have a 0.33 numerical aperture lens, and this new High-NA machine features a 0.55 numerical aperture. This larger aperture will allow Intel to create smaller transistors with higher resolution patterning and smaller printable features. This should allow Intel to create their next-generation lithography nodes, and create more efficient and powerful processors.

This High-NA EUV machine from AMSL will primarily be used by Intel for research purposes. This will allow Intel to start work on next-generation lithography nodes. In the video below, we can see the machine installed in one of Intel’s fabs. It will take 250 Intel/ASML engineers around six months to install and calibrate the machine completely.

Cutting-edge processors require cutting-edge tools, and these tools are expensive. ASML’s new High-NA lithography machines cost more than double the price of their existing low-NA EUV machines. This is part of the reason why leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing has become so expensive. This is also the reason why there is so little competition within the silicon foundry space.

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