MILD brought up new Intel XEON CPU rumors and exposed the core counts of the next-gen series such as Sierra Forest, Granite Rapids-SP, and Granite Rapids-WS.
MILD talks about the three upcoming XEON series in his latest YouTube video. These include Granite Rapids-SP, Granite Rapids-WS and Sierra Forest. The Granite Rapids Xeon CPU family will use P-Cores, while Sierra Forest is optimized for compute density and uses E-Cores.
Therefore, starting from the Sierra Forest series, these XEON CPUs will be optimized for power and performance to support high-density, ultra-efficient computing in the cloud. According to MLID, the Sierra Forest Xeon will house at least 344 cores, which will be packaged in four Compute Tiles, each of which will contain 86 cores. Rumors also point to a higher core count version, the 528-core version, which can pack up to 132 cores per tile, but will get 512 cores since one cluster will be disabled.
At this point Intel wants to compete with all AMD products for granted. While the standard Scalable series competes with the main EPYC rivals, Sierra Forest will compete with a series of compute-optimized EPYC products, such as the upcoming Bergamo with 128 Zen 4C cores and Falcon Shores will compete with custom Instinct APU accelerators, which It will start with the upcoming MI300 accelerator later this year. The Intel Sierra Forest family is expected to land in 2024 and will use the Intel 3 process.
With its 6th generation Granite Rapids-SP Xeon series, Intel is expected to make big changes to its product line. So far Intel has confirmed that its Granite Rapids-SP Xeon CPU will use the Intel 3 process (formerly 5nm EUV). The lineup is expected to launch sometime between 2023 and 2024, as Emerald Rapids will act as an intermediate solution rather than a proper replacement for the Xeon lineup.
It is said that Granite Rapids-SP Xeon will adopt the Redwood Cove+ core architecture and have a higher IPC. It is rumored that its IPC will be between 15-25%. Intel did give an overview of its Granite Rapids-SP CPU during its acceleration keynote, which featured three blocks for computing and two I/O dies on top and part of the interposer. Each of these blocks can pack up to 44 cores up to 132 cores according to MLID, but the actual core count will drop back down to 128 cores for better yield.
As for the platform, the Granite Rapids-SP Xeon CPU will feature a 12-lane DDR5 controller, multiple PCIe Gen 5 lanes, and CXL Gen 2 support, and is expected to launch in the first half of 2024 and compete with AMD’s Zen5.
The last rumor spoke of a successor to Intel’s Sapphire Rapids-WS (workstation). The series will adopt the Granite Rapids DNA and utilize two of the three titles to achieve a maximum of 88 cores, although only 86 cores are said to be available or even fewer. Like AMD’s Threadripper CPU family, the Granite Rapids-WS family will use a single I/O die. For memory, a workstation CPU might scale down to a 6-channel DDR5 controller. The upcoming Sapphire Rapids-WS CPU is expected to support both 4-channel and 8-channel memory, but if this allows Intel to unify its entire product line on one platform, then I think it will be a good thing for everyone .
Whether 86 cores will be enough against Threadripper remains to be seen as AMD is expected to launch its Threadripper 7000 CPU this year with an insane 96 core model U, so Intel’s next generation 86 cores may already look lackluster, but Intel may have an advantage in this IPC On the other hand, unless AMD wants to release Zen5 next year.
All of this is rumor at the moment, but it does suggest that Intel is getting hold of something in the server and workstation space in its future releases. Now it remains to be seen whether they will be able to effectively execute their plan and not be caught in further delays as they did with Sapphire Rapids.
