Intel Corp (INTC)

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Either (a) 14nm is worse than Intel is claiming (b) Charlie is right about Intel crippling Broadwell to get it out in time

Krzanich said that 14nm is still not where they want it to be in terms of yield. That could affect bin split as well.

But let's think it through. Intel has a cascading product development team, and 14nm has what appears to have been a 6 month impact to schedule, and as much as a 9-month impact to process health and ramp. Plan A is out the window, just like a train getting derailed, with each boxcar hitting the one in front. They could either:

- Plan B: All-hands on deck to fix Broadwell, and let the dominos fall where they may, or...

- Plan C: Cut-loose and double-down on Skylake

It's possible that Charlie's "detective work" has a grain of truth to it. If Intel adopted Plan-C, then they would have worked to get Broadwell out the door by sacrificing productization of either features, or performance. Or both.

And we know that Krzanich has said to expect Skylake in the second half of 2015, even as Broadwell pretty much ramps starting at the tail end of this year, going into early 2015.

Unless he's being overly optimistic about Skylake, it looks to me like he might have gone with Plan-C.