Intel introduces its Emerald Rapids processors for use in servers and data centers. These Xeon CPUs will have a maximum of 64 cores this generation. The chips also support faster DDR5 speeds and offer higher performance per watt.
The Emerald Rapids series will be given the marketing name ‘5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors’. It is a direct successor to the Sapphire Rapids chips from the fourth Xeon generation, which the chipmaker released in January 2023. The new server processors are again produced on Intel 7 and not the more advanced Intel 4 process on which Intel’s Meteor Lake laptop chips are based. They also use the same LGA-4677 socket, allowing Sapphire Rapids owners to upgrade to Emerald Rapids without buying a new motherboard.
The new Xeons once again exclusively use P-cores. The chipmaker supplies Emerald Rapids CPUs this time with a maximum of 64 cores and 128 threads. The Sapphire Rapids CPUs had a maximum of 60 cores. Next year, Intel will release server processors with more efficient, but less powerful E-cores, in the form of Sierra Forest.
The new chips also support a maximum of DDR5-5600 memory, where previously this was officially a maximum of DDR5-4800. The new Xeon chips also get up to 320MB L3 cache and eight DDR5 memory channels. Intel does not report in its press release how many PCIe lanes the new CPUs have. This is probably unchanged compared to the previous generation: Sapphire Rapids had eighty PCIe 5.0 lanes.
Intel is also continuing its On Demand program, which allows Xeon owners to unlock additional hardware features for a fee after purchase, such as access to certain built-in accelerators for specific computing tasks.
Different dies: one with ‘chiplets’, two without
Intel is introducing 32 different processors this generation. These differ in a number of ways, including the number of sockets on a motherboard they support; some CPUs can be used at most single-socket, while other variants support multi-socket systems. There are also special variants for water cooling, in addition to CPUs optimized for 5G and networks, cloud computing, storage infrastructure and IoT use.
The processors come with three different dies. The top model is also called XCC. These CPUs consist of two chiplet-like tiles. These chips come with a maximum of 64 cores. Intel also comes with an MCC variant, which has a single ‘monolithic’ die and up to 32 cores. Finally, the chipmaker shows an EE LCC variant, which also consists of a single die and offers a maximum of 20 cores. In the previous generation, Intel also released Max variants with integrated HBM memory, but these now seem to be missing.
Performance and availability
Intel claims that Emerald Rapids is on average 21 percent faster than Sapphire Rapids in ‘general’ compute tasks. According to Intel, the chips also offer an average of 34 percent higher performance per watt. With an improved idle mode, the chips would also save 100W per socket at 0 percent load, the chipmaker says. The integrated AI accelerator has also been improved. For example, turbo speeds have been increased for certain AVX and AMX workloads.
The prices of the 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors vary. The top model in the general purpose segment costs $ 11,600, or $ 12,400 for a variant with water cooling. The cheapest processor that Intel supplies has eight cores and costs $563. Server makers such as Cisco, Dell, HPE, Lenovo and Supermicro will supply systems with the Emerald Rapids chips from the first quarter of 2024.