Intel Xeon Rumored Core Counts Point To 334+ Cores For Sierra Forest, 132 Cores For Granite Rapids-SP, 86 Cores For Granite Rapids-WS
Moore’s Law is Dead talks about three upcoming Xeon families in his latest YouTube video. These include the Granite Rapids-SP, Granite Rapids-WS, and Sierra Forest. The Granite Rapids Xeon CPU family will make use of P-Cores while the Sierra Forest is optimized for compute density and makes use of E-Cores.
Intel Sierra Forest - Zen Compute Competitor With 334+ Cores
So starting with the Sierra Forest family, these Xeon CPUs will be power & performance optimized to support high-density, ultra-efficient compute for the cloud. According to MLID, the Sierra Forest Xeon chips will house at least 344 cores which will be packed within 4 Compute Tiles, and each tile would pack 86 cores. The rumors also point to an even higher core count variant in the form of the 528 core variant which could pack up to 132 cores per tile but will more realistically get 512 cores as one cluster would be disabled. It is a given at this point that Intel wants to compete against all AMD offerings. While the standard Scalable family competes against the main EPYC opponents, Sierra Forest will be competing with a range of compute-optimized EPYC parts such as the upcoming Bergamo with 128 Zen 4C cores and Falcon Shores will be competing against the custom Instinct APU accelerators which will start with the upcoming MI300 accelerator coming later this year. The Intel Sierra Forest family is expected to land in 2024 and will utilize the ‘Intel 3’ process node.
Intel Granite Rapids-SP - Up To 132 Cores Against Zen 5 EPYC
With its 6th Gen Granite Rapids-SP Xeon scalable family, Intel is expected to make big changes to its lineup. As of right now, Intel has confirmed that its Granite Rapids-SP Xeon CPUs will be based on the ‘Intel 3’ process node (Formely 5nm EUV). The lineup is expected to launch sometime between 2023 and 2024 as Emerald Rapids will be serving as an intermediary solution & not a proper Xeon family replacement. It is stated that Granite Rapids-SP Xeon chips will utilize the Redwood Cove+ core architecture and feature increased IPC which is rumored to be anywhere between 15-25%. Intel did tease a high-level overview of its Granite Rapids-SP CPU during its ‘Accelerated’ keynote which featured three tiles for compute and two I/O dies at the top and sections of the interposer. As per MLID, each of these tiles can pack up to 44 cores for up to 132 cores but the actual core count will fall back to 128 cores for a better yield. As for the platform, the Intel Granite Rapids-SP Xeon CPUs will rock a 12-channel DDR5 controller, several PCIe Gen 5 lanes, and CXL Gen 2 support, and are expected to target 1H of 2024 for launch and compete with AMD’s Zen 5 Turin line of EPYC chips. Intel CEO, Pat Gelsinger (Q3 2022 Earnings Call)
Next-Gen Intel Xeon vs AMD EPYC Generational CPU Comparison (Preliminary):
Intel Granite Rapids-WS - Up To 86 Cores Against Zen 5 Threadripper
Lastly, the rumors talk about Intel’s successor to the Sapphire Rapids-WS (Workstation) lineup. The family will be based upon the Granite Rapids DNA and utilize two of the three titles for a max of 88 cores though only 86 cores are said to be available or even lower. Just like AMD’s Threadripper CPU family, the Granite Rapids-WS family will feature a single I/O die. For memory, the workstation CPUs might scale back to a 6-channel DDR5 memory controller. The upcoming Sapphire Rapids-WS CPUs are expected to feature both 4-channel and 8-channel memory support but if that would allow Intel to unify its entire lineup on one platform then I guess that would be a good thing for everyone. Should 86 cores be enough against Threadripper remains to be seen because AMD is expected to introduce its Threadripper 7000 CPUs this year with an insane 96 core SKU so Intel’s next-gen with 86 cores might already look lackluster but the blue team might have an edge in terms of IPC, that is unless AMD wants to release Zen 5 next year. Overall, all of this is a rumor for now but it does show that Intel is getting the hang of things in the server and workstation landscape with its future releases. Now it remains to be seen whether they can execute their plans effectively and not stumble into further delays as they did with Sapphire Rapids.
Intel Xeon SP Families (Preliminary):
