Intel was the first company to build an explicitly disaggregated chiplet design, comprising 47 chiplets, with its Ponte Vecchio compute GPU for AI and HPC applications. This product still holds the record for the most populous multi-tile design, but Intel Foundry envisions something considerably more extreme: a multi-chiplet package that integrates at least 16 compute elements across eight base dies, 24 HBM5 memory stacks, and scales to 12X the size of the largest AI chips on the market ( 12x reticle size, beating TSMC's 9.5x reticle size). Of course, we can only wonder about the power consumption and cooling requirements for such beastly processors.
These sit on top of eight (presumably reticle-sized) compute base dies made on 18A-PT (1.8nm-class, performance enhanced with through-silicon vias (TSVs), and backside power delivery) that can either do some additional compute work, or pack plenty of SRAM cache for the 'main' compute dies, as Intel shows in its example.
From cutting-edge interconnects to system-level assembly and test, Intel Foundry delivers the scale and integration needed to power next-generation multichip platforms. Https://t.co/smSje92QQh #IntelFoundry #Semiconductors pic.twitter.com/4sAVftVRhg December 22, 2025
*Expand the tweet above to watch the fly-through video.
The base dies are connected to the compute tiles using Foveros Direct 3D, leveraging ultra-high-density sub-10 µm copper-to-copper hybrid bonding to deliver maximum bandwidth and power to the top dies. Intel's Foveros Direct 3D is currently the pinnacle of Intel Foundry's packaging innovations, underscoring the very sophisticated design.
The base dies leverage EMIB-T (an enhanced version of Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge with TSVs), with UCIe-A on top, for lateral (2.5D) interconnections among themselves and with I/O dies made on 18A-P (1.8nm-class, performance-enhanced), and custom base dies, for up to 24 HBM5 memory stacks.
It is noteworthy that Intel proposes to use EMIB-T with the UCIe-A on top to connect customized HBM5 modules rather than use JEDEC-standard HBM5 stacks with an industry-standard interface, possibly to get more performance and capacity. Given the concept nature of the demonstration, the use of custom HBM5 stacks is not a design requirement; it is simply a way to show that Intel integrates such devices as well.
The whole package can also carry PCIe 7.0, optical engines, noncoherent fabrics, 224G SerDes, proprietary accelerators for things like security, and even LPDDR5X memory for added DRAM capacity.
Note that the video Intel Foundry posted on X shows two conceptual designs: a 'mid-scale' one featuring four compute tiles and 12 HBM, and an 'extreme' one with 16 tiles and 24 HBM5 stacks, which our story focuses on. Even the mid-scale design is fairly advanced by today's standards, but Intel can produce it today.
As for the extreme concept, this may emerge toward the end of the decade, when Intel has perfected not only Foveros Direct 3D packaging technology but also its 18A and 14A production nodes. Being able to produce such extreme packages towards the end of the decade will put Intel on par with TSMC, which plans something similar and even expects at least some customers to use its wafer-size integration offerings in circa 2027 – 2028.
Making the extreme design a reality in just a few years is a significant challenge for Intel, as it must ensure the components do not warp when attached to motherboards and do not deform even with minimal tolerances due to overheating after prolonged use. Beyond that, Intel (and the whole industry) will need to learn how to feed and cool monstrous processor designs the size of a smartphone (up to 10,296 mm^2) that will have an even larger package, but that's a different story.
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