At the VLSI Symposium held in Hawaii, Intel unveiled the new Intel 18A-P foundry node, a significant refinement of the Intel 18A node that carves out room for a 9% increase in performance at iso-power. The company announced that it commenced risk-production on this new node, and has earmarked it for its next-generation Xeon "Diamond Rapids" server processor. Besides 9% increase in performance at iso-power, Intel 18A-P is claimed to offer an 18% power reduction at iso-performance, a 20-40% improvement in die-level thermal resistance, and a 10-30% improvement in Via resistance in performance-critical layers.

The company detailed the physical changes to the Intel 18A node made to achieve these gains. Intel added new cell options across its 180HP and 160HD libraries to support a wider range of products. For low-power designs, it introduced W1 and W1.5 cells. For high-performance needs, it added the W3P cell, which utilizes a "dual contact" design to boost performance without exceeding the footprint of the existing W3 cell. The company significantly lowered thermal resistance by integrating a new heat-conducting material on the front side of the die. Intel also updated its EDA tools to support thermally-aware layouts, allowing designers to better manage heat dissipation at the structural level.