Intel today announced the new Intel Xeon W-3400 and Intel Xeon W-2400 desktop workstation processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids), led by the Intel Xeon w9-3495X, Intel's most powerful desktop workstation processor ever designed. Built for professional creators, these new Xeon processors provide massive performance for media and entertainment, engineering and data science professionals. With a breakthrough new compute architecture, faster cores and new embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) packaging, the Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 series of processors enable unprecedented scalability for increased performance.

"For more than 20 years, Intel has been committed to delivering the highest quality workstation platforms - combining high-performance compute and rock-solid stability - for professional PC users across the globe. Our new Intel Xeon desktop workstation platform is uniquely designed to unleash the innovation and creativity of professional creators, artists, engineers, designers, data scientists and power users - built to tackle both today's most demanding workloads as well as the professional workloads of the future." -Roger Chandler, Intel vice president and general manager, Creator and Workstation Solutions, Client Computing Group

Leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock, proudly announces its new ASRock W790 WS motherboard for workstations for Intel Xeon W-3400/W-2400 series processors (LGA4677). The ASRock W790 WS features up to 2 TB DDR5 ECC RDIMM support, PCI-Express 5.0 expansion slots, USB4/Thunderbolt 4 and Dual 10 Gbps Ethernet. A flagship-class 14-layer PCB and 20+2 phase CPU VRM ensures ultimate performance and superb reliability, even when subjected to the most demanding sustained workloads.

Supports New 4th Generation Xeon Processor
The W790 WS chipset is optimized for new Intel Xeon W-2400 series (LGA4677) processors and is compatible with W-3400 series processors with up to 56 cores also. The ASRock W790 WS provides a quad-channel DDR5 design with 2DPC over 8 DIMM slots, maximizing memory performance, potential memory pool capacity and supports ECC RDIMMs to ensure data reliability.

Ahead of its launch, the SKU table of Intel's Xeon W "Sapphire Rapids" HEDT/Workstation-class processor lineup was leaked to the web. The lineup is horizontally split between the Xeon W-3400 series, and the Xeon W-2400 series. The W-2400 series come in rather modest CPU core-counts ranging between 6-core/12-thread and 24-core/48-thread. These chips are characterized by a 4-channel DDR5 memory interface (8 sub-channels); and a 64-lane PCIe Gen 5 I/O. The W-3400 series, on the other hand, ranges between 12-core/24-thread and 56-core/112-thread, nearly maxing out the core-count of the "Sapphire Rapids" MCM. These chips feature a massive 8-channel (16 sub-channel) DDR5 memory interface, and a 112-lane PCIe Gen 5 I/O. Prices for the lineup start at a surprisingly low $360 for the base W-2400 series SKU; while the top W-2400 series SKU is priced at $2,189. The W-3400 series ranges between $1,189 for the base 12-core/24-thread part, and goes all the way up to $5,889 for the top 56-core part. All models feature ECC memory support.

Intel today revealed that it will launch its Xeon W "Sapphire Rapids-WS" processors for workstations and high-end desktops (HEDTs) at a launch event dated February 15, 2023. The series is expected to consist of two distinct classes of processors, the Xeon W-2400 series, and the Xeon W-3400 series, which are rumored to be available from different dates within Q1-2023. The W-3400 series and W-2400 series could be differentiated with platform I/O and core-counts. The W-3400 series is expected to put out the full PCIe Gen 5 112-lane I/O of the "Sapphire Rapids" MCM, while the W-2400 series has a narrower 64-lane PCIe Gen 5 interface. The two could also differ in DDR5 memory channels (8 for the W-3400 series vs. 4 for the W-2400 series), and hence maximum memory supported (4 TB vs. 2 TB, respectively), although both support ECC. Intel W790 is expected to be the common chipset for both.

Intel's upcoming LGA-7529 socket designed for next-generation Xeon processors has been pictured, thanks to Yuuki_Ans and Hassan Mujtaba. According to the latest photos, we see the massive LGA-7529 socket with an astonishing 7,529 pins placed inside of a single socket. Made for Intel's upcoming "Birch Stream" platform, this socket is going to power Intel's next-generation "Sierra Forest" Xeon processors. With Sierra Forest representing a new way of thinking about Xeon processors, it also requires a special socket. Built on Intel 3 manufacturing process, these Xeon processors use only E-cores in their design to respond to AMD EPYC Bergamo with Zen4c.

The Intel Xeon roadmap will split in 2024, where Sierra Forest will populate dense and efficient cloud computing with E-cores, while its Granite Rapids sibling will power high-performance computing using P-cores. This interesting split will be followed by the new LGA-7529 socket pictured below, which is a step up from Intel's current LGA-4677 socket with 4677 pins used for Sapphire Rapids. With higher core densities and performance targets, the additional pins are likely to be mostly power/ground pins, while the smaller portion is picking up the additional I/O of the processor.20:20 UTC: Updated with motherboard picture of dual-socket LGA-7529 system, thanks to findings of @9550pro lurking in the Chinese forums.

Intel Corporation today reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 financial results. The company also announced that its board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.365 per share on the company's common stock, which will be payable on March 1, 2023, to shareholders of record as of February 7, 2023.

"Despite the economic and market headwinds, we continued to make good progress on our strategic transformation in Q4, including advancing our product roadmap and improving our operational structure and processes to drive efficiencies while delivering at the low-end of our guided range," said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. "In 2023, we will continue to navigate the short-term challenges while striving to meet our long-term commitments, including delivering leadership products anchored on open and secure platforms, powered by at-scale manufacturing and supercharged by our incredible team."

Intel is preparing to launch HEDT/workstation processors based on its "Sapphire Rapids-WS" MCM, and one of the first of these parts, the Xeon W9-3495X, surfaced on the Geekbench online database. The W9-3495X is a 56-core/112-thread processor with 56 "Golden Cove" P-cores, each with 2 MB of L2 cache, and sharing 105 MB of L3 cache in a mesh-topology layout. The processor likely features an 4-channel (8 sub-channel) DDR5 memory interface, with ECC; and supports up to 4 TB of memory. The PCI-Express Gen 5 lane counts remain unknown. Intel is expected to launch these processors along with companion W790 chipset motherboards, on February 15, 2023. This processor, running on a Supermicro-designed motherboard, and 128 GB of DDR5 memory, scored 1284 points in Geekbench 5, along with 36990 points multi-threaded.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced its 64 GB, 32 GB, and 16 GB Server Premier DDR5 4800MT/s Registered DIMMs have been validated on the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor (formerly codenamed Sapphire Rapids). For over 35 years Kingston has been the memory brand trusted by leading server manufacturers and the world's largest data centers. Server Premier is Kingston's industry standard memory solution sold by specification for use in white-box servers, and is platform validated and qualified by leading motherboard/system manufacturers. Featuring a locked BOM (Bill of Materials) to provide a consistent brand and revision of primary components (including DRAM, register, PMIC, SPD hub, thermal sensors, and PCB), all Kingston server memory solutions are 100% tested and undergo a rigorous dynamic burn-in process designed to catch early-life failures at the factory.

Intel's 4th Gen Xeon Scalable Processor is their first to support next-generation DDR5 server-class memory and features eight memory channels, arranged in up to two DIMMs per channel, or 16 DIMMs per CPU socket. At 4800MT/s, each DDR5 Registered DIMM provides a peak bandwidth of 38.4 GB/s, which when grouped in multi-channel configurations provides a marked increase in performance over DDR4-based servers. DDR5 introduces advanced features for a more reliable and more efficient memory subsystem, including on-die ECC (ODECC), double the number of banks and double the burst length, improved refreshes, inclusion of a power management circuit (PMIC), additional temperature sensors, decision feedback equalization (DFE), and dual independent 32-bit subchannels (40-bit for ECC).

Intel's Xeon processors feature a wide range of embedded functionalities that the company has developed over the years. One such is the Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC) that enabled the functionality of an NVMe RAID card on the CPU, simplifying the installation, cost, and maintenance of high-performance storage arrays. Debuting in 2017, it is present in some consumer-facing Core models and Xeon Scalable platforms where it sees the highest usage. However, on January 6, Intel posted a product change notice that notified the users that the VROC function would be discontinued, with the last orders being placed on January 23 and the last shipping with VROC being made on March 31. This caused confusion, especially in the enterprise sector, which utilizes Intel Xeon processors for their workloads and storage arrays.

Tom's Hardware has reached out to Intel for clarification and got the following statement:

Intel SpokespersonThe PCN [Product Change Notice] was prematurely posted while the decision was under evaluation. After discussing with the ecosystem and customers we realize there is significant demand for this product and intend to continue to support it.

Dell Technologies expands the industry's top selling server portfolio, with an additional 13 next-generation Dell PowerEdge servers, designed to accelerate performance and reliability for powerful computing across core data centers, large-scale public clouds and edge locations. Next-generation rack, tower and multi-node PowerEdge servers, with 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, include Dell software and engineering advancements, such as a new Smart Flow design, to improve energy and cost efficiency. Expanded Dell APEX capabilities will help organizations take an as-a-Service approach, allowing for more effective IT operations that make the most of compute resources while minimizing risk.

"Customers come to Dell for easily managed yet sophisticated and efficient servers with advanced capabilities to power their business-critical workloads," said Jeff Boudreau, president and general manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies. "Our next-generation Dell PowerEdge servers offer unmatched innovation that raises the bar in power efficiency, performance and reliability while simplifying how customers can implement a Zero Trust approach for greater security throughout their IT environments."

SK hynix Inc. (or "the company", www.skhynix.com) announced today that its DDR5 product for servers using 1anm, the fourth generation of the 10 nm process technology, has been validated on the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor (formerly codenamed Sapphire Rapids) for the first time in the industry. "The validation of the 1anm DDR5 compatibility by Intel for its newest processor that supports DDR5 for the first time is monumental," SK hynix said. "We will seek a fast turnaround in the semiconductor memory industry by actively responding to the growing server market through DDR5, which is already in mass production."

The validation of the company's 1anm DDR5 product, which adopts 1anm technology using the EUV lithography process, is for 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Intel's latest server CPU launched on January 10th. The 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor has been cited as a key to a turnaround in the industry, given that the launch of a next-generation server CPU requires server replacement and thus, results in a rapid increase in demand for high-performance memory chips. Experts predict that DDR5, expected to meet customers' such needs, will soon become the flagship product in the server DRAM market.

AI is at the heart of humanity's most transformative innovations—from developing COVID vaccines at unprecedented speeds and diagnosing cancer to powering autonomous vehicles and understanding climate change. Virtually every industry will benefit from adopting AI, but the technology has become more resource intensive as neural networks have increased in complexity. To avoid placing unsustainable demands on electricity generation to run this computing infrastructure, the underlying technology must be as efficient as possible.

Accelerated computing powered by NVIDIA GPUs and the NVIDIA AI platform offer the efficiency that enables data centers to sustainably drive the next generation of breakthroughs. And now, timed with the launch of 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, NVIDIA and its partners have kicked off a new generation of accelerated computing systems that are built for energy-efficient AI. When combined with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, these systems can deliver dramatically higher performance, greater scale and higher efficiency than the prior generation, providing more computation and problem-solving per watt.

TYAN, an industry-leading server platform design manufacturer and a MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation subsidiary, today introduced 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based server platforms highlighting built-in accelerators to improve performance across the fastest-growing workloads in AI, analytics, cloud, storage, and HPC.

"Greater availability of new technology like 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors continue to drive the changes in the business landscape", said Danny Hsu, Vice President of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation's Server Infrastructure Business Unit. "The advances in TYAN's new portfolio of server platforms with features such as DDR5, PCIe 5.0 and Compute Express Link 1.1 are bringing high levels of compute power within reach from smaller organizations to data centers."

AIC Inc., (from now on referred to as"AIC"), a leading provider in enterprise storage and server solutions, today unveiled its new server systems powered by 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (formerly codenamed Sapphire Rapids). The new server platforms are designed to accelerate performance across the most in-demand workloads that businesses rely on including enterprise, storage, AI and HPC.

The newly launched AIC servers, SB102-HK, SB201-HK and HP202-KT, are designed to offer superior processing performance and energy efficiency by leveraging the innovative features of 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors. With built-in accelerators, the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors optimize the utilization of CPU core resources and feature enhanced memory bandwidth with DDR5, advanced I/O with PCIe Gen 5 and Compute Express Link (CXL) 2.0/1.1, and the ability to accelerate PyTorch real-time inference performance by up to 10x using Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions (Intel AMX) compared to the previous generation. The new AIC servers are empowered by advanced security technologies from 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, allowing them to protect data and unlock new opportunities for business collaborations.

Inspur Information, a leading IT infrastructure solutions provider, announced that its G7 server platform fully supports 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors. The 16 servers making up the brand-new lineup are industry-leading in terms of performance, openness, intelligent operation & maintenance, and sustainability. Compared with the previous generation of Intel-based products, these servers have 61% higher performance and up to 30% higher computing performance per unit of power consumption. The server platform is designed to be deployed in general-purpose computing, critical computing, AI, and other application scenarios.

Inspur Information's brand-new G7 platform was designed with green technology, open-source solutions, security, and intelligence as priorities. It is an industry-leading example of system design, energy efficiency, and operation & maintenance management. G7 servers support diversified computing, with the most comprehensive product lineup in the industry. With a focus on green energy, this product line supports cold plate and immersion cooling schemes, and has unique cooling designs such as T-shaped radiator and advance heat detection with intelligent regulation, which all work together to reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. The new series also supports cloud operation and maintenance for intelligent fault diagnosis with an accuracy rate up to 95%.

NEXCOM, a leading supplier of network appliances, launched a new platform based on the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor - the NSA 7160. This high-performance 2U rackmount is a long-awaited enhancement of NEXCOM's well-established cyber security product line. NSA 7160 is equipped with the latest Intel technologies, featuring eight PCIe Gen5 extension slots for LAN modules, built-in accelerators, CXL1.1 and supports installation of RunBMC module & full-height full-length (FHFL) card.

NEXCOM's NSA 7160 is intended for network security and 5G network applications, with cutting-edge features like multi-core computing performance, high memory capacity, high-speed I/O interface, and improved Intel QuickAssist Technology (Intel QAT) hardware acceleration for both enterprise and telecommunication applications. By leveraging 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, NSA 7160 accelerates performance across the fastest-growing workloads and delivers value across multiple applications.

Today, Lenovo unveiled 25 new ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile server and hyperconverged solutions powered by Intel's 4th Generation Xeon Scalable Processors as part of its recently announced Infrastructure Solutions V3 portfolio. Designed to help accelerate global IT modernization for organizations of all sizes, the integrated solutions deliver advanced performance, efficiency and management capabilities specifically optimized for complex workloads, including mission-critical, AI, HPC and containerized applications.

"In today's competitive business climate, modern infrastructure solutions that generate faster insights and more efficiently enable complex workloads from the edge to the cloud are critical across every major industry," said Kamran Amini, Vice President and General Manager of Server & Storage, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group. "With the performance and management improvements of the Intel-based ThinkSystem V3 portfolio, customers can reduce their IT footprint by up to three times to achieve greater ROI and more easily transform their infrastructure with one seamless platform designed for today's AI, virtualization, multi-cloud and sustainable computing demands."

Intel today marked one of the most important product launches in company history with the unveiling of 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids), the Intel Xeon CPU Max Series (code-named Sapphire Rapids HBM) and the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series (code-named Ponte Vecchio), delivering for its customers a leap in data center performance, efficiency, security and new capabilities for AI, the cloud, the network and edge, and the world's most powerful supercomputers.

Working alongside its customers and partners with 4th Gen Xeon, Intel is delivering differentiated solutions and systems at scale to tackle their biggest computing challenges. Intel's unique approach to providing purpose-built, workload-first acceleration and highly optimized software tuned for specific workloads enables the company to deliver the right performance at the right power for optimal overall total cost of ownership. Additionally, as Intel's most sustainable data center processors, 4th Gen Xeon processors deliver customers a range of features for managing power and performance, making the optimal use of CPU resources to help achieve their sustainability goals.

Giga Computing is an industry leader in high-performance servers and workstations, today announced the next-generation of GIGABYTE servers and server motherboards for the new 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor to achieve efficient performance gains with built-in accelerators. The new processors have the most built-in accelerators of any processor on the market to help maximize performance efficiency for emerging workloads; and do so while boosting virtualization and AI performance. Generational improvements make this platform ideal for AI, cloud computing, advanced analytics, HPC, networking, and storage applications. For these markets, Giga Computing has announced fourteen new series that constitute seventy-eight configurations for customers to choose from. And all these new GIGABYTE products support the full portfolio of 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, including those with high bandwidth memory (HBM) in the Intel Xeon Max Series.

On Jan. 10, Intel will officially welcome to market the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and the Intel Xeon CPU Max Series, as well as the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series for high performance computing (HPC) and AI. Hosted by Sandra Rivera, executive vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and AI Group at Intel, and Lisa Spelman, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel Xeon Products, the event will highlight the value of 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and the Intel Max Series product family, while showcasing customer, partner and ecosystem support.

The event will demonstrate how Intel is addressing critical needs in the marketplace with a focus on a workload-first approach, performance leadership in key areas such as AI, networking and HPC, the benefits of security and sustainability, and how the company is delivering significant outcomes for its customers and the industry.

Today, Intel announced the 2023 release of the Intel oneAPI tools - available in the Intel Developer Cloud and rolling out through regular distribution channels. The new oneAPI 2023 tools support the upcoming 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Intel Xeon CPU Max Series and Intel Data Center GPUs, including Flex Series and the new Max Series. The tools deliver performance and productivity enhancements, and also add support for new Codeplay plug-ins that make it easier than ever for developers to write SYCL code for non-Intel GPU architectures. These standards-based tools deliver choice in hardware and ease in developing high-performance applications that run on multiarchitecture systems.

"We're seeing encouraging early application performance results on our development systems using Intel Max Series GPU accelerators - applications built with Intel's oneAPI compilers and libraries. For leadership-class computational science, we value the benefits of code portability from multivendor, multiarchitecture programming standards such as SYCL and Python AI frameworks such as PyTorch, accelerated by Intel libraries. We look forward to the first exascale scientific discoveries from these technologies on the Aurora system next year."
-Timothy Williams, deputy director, Argonne Computational Science Division

Intel is planning to refresh its desktop processor product stack with new "Raptor Lake Refresh" SKUs in Q3-2023, according to a leaked roadmap. At this point it's unclear if these are just new SKUs within the 13th Gen Core desktop product stack, or if they'll form the 14th Gen Core family, much in the same way as "Coffee Lake Refresh" formed the 9th Gen Core, replacing the 8th Gen Core "Coffee Lake." At this point we don't know what constitutes "Raptor Lake Refresh," but it provides Intel's product managers with the opportunity to increase CPU core-counts across the product stack without needing a new silicon (the Raptor Lake silicon has 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores), slightly higher clock-speeds, and other improvements. We don't know if this will herald a new CPU socket or platform at this point, either.

The most interesting item in this leaked roadmap slide has to be the reference to the "mainstream workstation" segment, with products in the 250 W TDP bracket. The so-called "Sapphire Rapids 64L" could be a cut-down version of the "Sapphire Rapids" enterprise processor on a new socket, backed by the Intel W790 chipset. The "64L" part of the codename could be a reference to its PCIe Gen 5 lane count of 64, which is less than the 112 available to the full "Sapphire Rapids" silicon in its W-3400 product-stack. It's unclear if these processors feature a Core X branding like their predecessors from the "Cascade Lake-X" family, or Xeon W. Besides fewer PCIe lanes, Intel could also segment these chips with fewer DDR5 memory channels, though both the PCIe and DDR5 connectivity will be much wider than those of the "Raptor Lake-S" mainstream desktop processors.

Nfina announces the addition of three new server systems to its lineup, customized for hybrid/multi-cloud, hyperconverged HA infrastructure, HPC, backup/disaster recovery, and business storage solutions. Featuring 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, Nfina-Store, and Nfina-View software, these scalable server systems fill a void in the marketplace, bringing exceptional multi-socket processing performance, easy-to-use management tools, built-in backup, and rapid disaster recovery.

"We know we must build systems for the business IT needs of today while planning for unknown future demands. Flexible infrastructure is key, optimized for hybrid/multi-cloud, backup/disaster recovery, HPC, and growing storage needs," says Warren Nicholson, President, and CEO of Nfina. He continues by saying, "Flexible infrastructure also means offering managed services like IaaS, DRaaS, etc., that provide customers with choices that fit the size of their application and budget - not a one size fits all approach like many of our competitors. Our goal is to serve many different business IT applications, any size, anywhere, at any time."

Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud division is extensively developing custom Arm-based CPU solutions to suit its enterprise clients and is releasing new iterations of the Graviton series. Today, during the company re:Invent week, we are getting a new CPU custom-tailored to high-performance computing (HPC) workloads called Graviton3E. Given that HPC workloads require higher bandwidth, wider datapaths, and data types span in multiple dimensions, AWS redesigned the Graviton3 processor and enhanced it with new vector processing capabilities with a new name—Graviton3E. This CPU is promised to offer up to 35% higher performance in workloads that depend on heavy vector processing.

With the rising popularity of HPC in the cloud, AWS sees a significant market opportunity and is trying to capture it. Available in the AWS EC2 instance types, this chip will be available with up to 64 vCPU cores and 128 GiB of memory. The supported EC2 tiers that will offer this enhanced chip are C7gn and Hpc7g instances that provide 200 Gbps of dedicated network bandwidth that is optimized for traffic between instances in the same VPC. In addition, Intel-based R7iz instances are available for HPC users in the cloud, now powered by 4th generation Xeon Scalable processors codenamed Sapphire Rapids.

Back in September 2021, reports about Intel working on something called SDSi or software defined silicon, started to appear. Now, over a year later, the company has finally launched its SDSi products under the Intel On Demand branding. Back then, we speculated about what features Intel would put behind a paywall and although we were somewhat off track, Intel has put some specific "instructions" behind the paywall on the supported Xeon processors. Specifically, some CPUs will have Quick Assist, Dynamic Load Balancer and Data Streaming Accelerator available as an On Demand feature. Additionally, Intel is also putting its Software Guard Extensions and In-Memory Analytics Accelerator behind the same pay wall.

It appears that these features will be offered as-a-service offering from some of Intel's service partners, but there's also a "one-time activation of select CPU accelerators and security features" according to the Intel On Demand website. It's unclear which Xeon SKUs will get Intel On Demand, but according to The Register, it'll be the upcoming Sapphire Rapids based Xeon processors which should be the first parts affected. Intel has listed partners like HP, Lenovo and SuperMicro, among others, that are involved with the Intel On Demand program. It will still be possible to buy next gen Xeon CPUs that are fully feature enabled like today, but it's unclear if the Intel On Demand Xeon SKUs will offer some kind of cost benefits to companies that don't need the additional features that are behind the paywall.