Intel unveiled a brand new household of server processors dubbed Xeon 6. Particularly, the 6700E collection makes use of solely E-cores for the aim of cramming as many cores as potential in a single socket –as much as 144 cores on this case. This collection is code named Sierra Forrest. Intel additionally has one other collection, Granite Rapids, which is able to convey Xeon 6 processors with P-cores, however that’s coming in Q3 this yr.
The Sierra Forrest choices begin with the Xeon 6 6710E, which options 64 Effectivity cores working at 2.4GHz base and three.2GHz all-core turbo. Then there are two fashions with 96 cores, one every with 112 and 128 cores and eventually two prime of the road fashions.
The 6766E has 144 E-cores and a TDP of 250W, permitting it to run at 1.9GHz base frequency and a couple of.7GHz all-core turbo. Then there may be the 6780E, additionally with 144 cores, however a better TDP of 330W, so it has a base frequency of two.2GHz and all-core turbo of three.0GHz.
These final two have 108MB of L3 cache, however even the lowly 6710E has 96MB (in reality, all however the two 144 core fashions have 96MB). All Xeon 6 E-core processors even have loads of PCIe 5.0 lanes – 88, to be exact.
Intel Xeon 6 E-cores (Sierra Forest)
Some workloads profit from having many cores, not a lot from any particular person core being notably quick. For such use instances, Intel says that the variety of server racks will be decreased by 3 occasions. For instance, a server farm with 200 racks utilizing processors from 5 years in the past can now be whittled all the way down to 66 racks.
Even higher, rack-level efficiency will enhance by as much as 4.2x whereas utilizing much less energy as well – efficiency per watt will enhance by as much as 2.6x. There’s a purpose these are known as effectivity cores. Anyway, that is in comparison with older processors from Intel. In comparison with present competitors, Intel claims that the Xeon 6 with E-cores has 1.3x higher efficiency per watt.
Different, heavier computation duties (AI, laptop imaginative and prescient, and so on.) will profit from the Granite Rapids collection with extra highly effective (however presumably fewer) P-cores as a substitute.
PS. Intel says that common availability of its Gaudi 3 AI accelerator is on observe for Q3 this yr.