The dark satanic rumour mill from the Far East is reporting that Chipzilla’s cunning plans to make chips so thin that you can’t count how many will fit on the head of a pin, are running ahead at full steam.

Digitimes claims that Intel’s plan to shrink its process to 14nm on schedule and should be with us in a year. But what is more interesting is that Intel will get its process down to 5nm by 2015. All this ties in nicely with Globalfoundries plans to have its 14nm FinFET ready at about the same time.

With Intel shrinking like a Swedish skinny dipper’s scrotum, Samsung and TSMC will be left behind. They have plans to move to 18" wafers in 2017. Digitimes claims that by the end of 2013, Intel will enter the generation of 14nm CPUs and SoCs, while expanding its investments at its D1X Fab in Oregon, and Fab 42 in Arizona, the US and Fab 24 in Ireland.

After that it will enter 10nm, 7nm and 5nm process generations starting 2015.