Intel announces 288-core Sierra Forest Xeon processor

[DragonSlayer101]

What just happened? At its Innovation 2023 event this week, Intel not only announced a wealth of details about its future consumer products but also unveiled a 288-core CPU as part of its 'Sierra Forest' lineup for high-density servers. The company also confirmed that Sierra Forest, Granite Rapids, and Clearwater Forest will be compatible with its new Birch Stream platform, which will include the LGA 4710 and LGA 7529 sockets.

The 288-core CPU will be a dual-chiplet SKU with 144 cores on each die, totaling 288 cores and 288 threads. It will compete against AMD's EPYC Bergamo CPUs, which come with up to 128 Zen 4C cores, and Ampere's 192-core AmpereOne processors, both of which were announced earlier this year. Tom's Hardware speculates that Intel could even launch a tri-chiplet SKU with a mind-boggling 432 cores, but whether that will be technologically feasible remains to be seen.

Intel also confirmed that its 5th-gen Xeon family, codenamed 'Emerald Rapids,' will launch on December 14. It will be compatible with the existing Eagle Stream platform and offer some interesting upgrades over its predecessor. According to Intel, the new chips will bring faster memory and offer significant performance gains compared to the 4th-gen lineup while consuming the same amount of power.

Another notable announcement from Intel was its increasing focus on AI applications. The company stated that a supercomputer designed for AI tasks would be constructed entirely using its Xeon processors along with 4,000 Gaudi2 AI hardware accelerators. The primary customer for this machine will be Stability AI, the artificial intelligence-driven visual art startup responsible for the generative AI model known as Stable Diffusion.

Intel additionally touched on its consumer products during the event, including a confirmed launch date for its Meteor Lake CPU lineup. What's more, the company provided some details about its upcoming processor generations, which include Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake, and Panther Lake.

Meteor Lake is almost here, with the first set of 'Core Ultra' chips scheduled to launch on December 14. The chipmaker claims that Meteor Lake represents the most significant architectural shift in the company's processor design in four decades, and it is expected to deliver noticeable performance and efficiency improvements over its predecessors. As for Arrow Lake, it is expected to debut in the second half of 2024, while Lunar Lake could arrive by 2024-25. Finally, there's Panther Lake, which is slated for release in 2025.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100221-intel-announces-288-core-sierra-forest-xeon-processor.html

 

[Keruklinx]

But why though?

 

[Nanochip]

But why though?

Data center insatiable need for compute ?

 

[hahahanoobs]

What?! Where did this come from? Intel is moving crazy fast.

 

[hahahanoobs]

But why though?

Read the article?

 

[maxxcool7421]

But why though?

Edge computing where lower speed lower performance cores wont matter when you can cram 3 E-cores cores that operate @ 70% of the IPC as a single large full-cache-full-size P-core .. also saves rack space which is now becoming an issue as much as power consumption where 250,000 node data centers are too small no longer able to expand floor space.

 

[quadibloc]

What your article didn't mention, but the Tom's Hardware one linked to did, was that those 288 cores are E-cores, not P-cores. So this is like the Xeon Phi, built from Atom cores. Whereas the AMD EPYC parts have genuine full-powered Ryzen cores.
So it's a big number of cores, but it's not really all that impressive.

 

[wiyosaya]

What your article didn't mention, but the Tom's Hardware one linked to did, was that those 288 cores are E-cores, not P-cores. So this is like the Xeon Phi, built from Atom cores. Whereas the AMD EPYC parts have genuine full-powered Ryzen cores.
So it's a big number of cores, but it's not really all that impressive.

Sounds like the Intel I know and love.

 

[mosu]

And so Intel launches the first kilowatt processor.

 

[Bobbydpue]

What your article didn't mention, but the Tom's Hardware one linked to did, was that those 288 cores are E-cores, not P-cores. So this is like the Xeon Phi, built from Atom cores. Whereas the AMD EPYC parts have genuine full-powered Ryzen cores.
So it's a big number of cores, but it's not really all that impressive.

Performance is what matters not speculation, without seeing benchmarks for suitable applications, how can you form an opinion about how good or bad the CPU will be? I don't care what brand is on the box I care about what I get for my money.

 

[Bobbydpue]

And so Intel launches the first kilowatt processor.

Based on what objective evidence?

 

[Keruklinx]

Edge computing where lower speed lower performance cores wont matter when you can cram 3 E-cores cores that operate @ 70% of the IPC as a single large full-cache-full-size P-core .. also saves rack space which is now becoming an issue as much as power consumption where 250,000 node data centers are too small no longer able to expand floor space.

Thank you! I got lost in the sauce in the article.