What are Intel’s plans in the server sector? The American company has so far kept quiet about development plans after Sapphire Rapids, the fourth generation of Xeon Scalable processors expected to make their official debut in the coming months. The rival AMD, however, anticipated the arrival of two separate projects, Genoa and Bergamo, respectively with 96 and 128 cores produced at 5 nanometers. The first will debut this year, the second in 2023 with a special meaning of Zen 4 cores, called Zen 4c and optimized for loads in the cloud sector.
While waiting for Intel to respond in black and white to the competitor’s plans, revealing the roadmap for the next few years, some information about the company’s alleged plans comes from The next platform. The site has gathered some “gossip” gleaned from its sources, as well as a few guesses, to hypothesize a plausible roadmap by 2025/2026.
The “after Sapphire Rapids” processors should be called Emerald Rapids, Granite Rapids, and Diamond Rapids. As we now know, Sapphire Rapids represents the first Intel processor based on a modular design, that is, consisting of several tiles (or chiplets) joined together by means of EMIB packaging technology. The Sapphire Rapids project is expected to provide a maximum of 56 Golden Cove cores (112 threads) manufactured with Intel 7 (formerly 10nm Enhanced SuperFin) manufacturing process and capable of improve CPI by 19% over Ice Lake.
For this CPU are expected eight memory channels which should guarantee support until 4TB DDR5-4800, 80 PCI Express 5.0 lanes and up to 350W TDP. From Sapphire Rapids, as confirmed by Intel itself, we will see two versions: a standard one and one equipped with HBM2E memory.
As for the successor emerald rapidsor what should be the fifth generation of Xeon Scalable, the company should again rely on the process Intel 7, although slightly improved to achieve higher efficiency and yields. According to the source, the heart of this chip will be represented by the hearts Raptor Covean optimization of the Golden Cove units it is supposed to provide an improvement in the CPI of between 5% and 10%.
Configurations are expected up to 64 cores / 128 threads, up from Sapphire Rapids’ 56 cores / 112 threads. Big increase also with regard to the L3 cache, which with 112 MB could more than double. Additionally, memory support is expected to increase to DDR5-5600, while increasing the TDP to 375W. Emerald Rapids is expected to maintain compatibility with the Sapphire Rapids Eagle Stream platform (LGA 4677 socket).thus enabling a painless upgrade for all Intel customers.
After Emerald Rapids in the hypothetical roadmap, there should be room for slush rapidswhat it should be the first server processor based on Intel 4 processes, or what the company previously called 7-nanometer EUV. At the heart of this solution should be the kernels redwood covefor a maximum of 120 units. It is whispered that a 35% increase in the CPI compared to the previous generation. The project should also guarantee 280 MB of L3 cache, 128 PCI Express 6.0 lanes, 12 DDR5-6400 memory channels and would require a TDP of up to 400W.
One of the most important news comes from Granite Rapids, it should cover AVX-1024/FMA3 vector engines to improve performance in several specific workloads. Unfortunately, due to the many changes, processors will have to a new platform called Mountain Stream.
We end with Diamond Rapids, hypothetically the 7th generation Xeon Scalable. Expected in 2025, the project is presented as a clear improvement in Intel architecture. The cores of this CPU, called Lion’s Covethey could make sure Double Golden Cove IPC performance used at Sapphire Rapids.
The chip could be made with the process Intel 3, or the old 5 nanometer of the company, and there are rumors that it could offer up to 144 cores and 288 threads, plus 288 MB of L3 cache. The next platform concerns Up to 39% CPI improvement over Granite Rapids and assumes the presence of 128 PCIe 6.0 lanes and 12 DDR6-7200 channels. Finally, the site also mentions a project called Sierra Forest, which would not however be a successor to Diamond Rapids but a variant intended for a specific field of work, like AMD Bergamo and its Zen 4c cores for the computer sector. cloud. .