After being delayed for a while, Intel finally inaugurated the 4th generation Xeon Scalable called Sapphire Rapids, both the HBM variant called Sapphire Rapids HBM and the Max variant called Ponte Vecchio.
From this line of new processors, the maximum number of cores is 60, up 50% from Xeon Ice Lake which only has 40 cores. Intel claims there is a 53% increase in terms of performance compared to the previous generation.
When compared to previous generation Xeons, Intel claims 4th Gen Intel Xeon customers will experience an average 2.9x increase in performance efficiency per watt on the targeted workload when utilizing the integrated accelerator, saving up to 70-watts of power per CPU in reduced power mode. optimized with minimal performance loss, and lower TCO between 52% to 66%.
Beyond performance, Intel is also developing improvements in efficiency, security, and new capabilities for AI, cloud, network, edge data center, and supercomputers. This series also supports a number of features such as DDR5, PCIe 5.0, and Compute Express Link (CXL) 1.1 interconnection.
Compared to the previous generation, on the AI side of this Xeon Sapphire Rapids processor achieves PyTorch real-time inference and training performance with the integrated Intel Advanced Matrix Extension (Intel AMX) accelerator by up to 10x.
Intel is proposing the Sapphire Rapids processor line as the most environmentally friendly data center processor, and is equipped with various features to manage power and performance for customers to be able to optimize CPU resources.
The Xeon CPU Max Series is also promised to be the first and only x86-based processor with high-bandwidth memory, so it can accelerate many HPC workloads without requiring code changes. Each processor in the series includes 64 gigabytes of high bandwidth memory (HBM2e) in the package, significantly increasing data throughput for HPC and AI workloads.
"The release of the 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processor and Max Series product family is a watershed moment in driving Intel's turnaround, reviving our path to leadership in the data center and expanding our expertise in new arenas," said Sandra Rivera, executive vice president and general manager of Intel Datacenter and AI Group, in a statement we received, Friday (13/1/2022).
"Intel's 4th Gen Xeon and Max Series product families deliver what customers really want - leading-edge performance and reliability in a secure environment for their real needs - accelerating value creation and driving their pace of innovation," he added.
The expansive integrated accelerators in the 4th Xeon allow Intel to deliver power savings at the platform level, reduce the need for additional discrete accelerations, and help customers achieve their sustainability goals.
Additionally, optimized power mode can deliver up to 20% in-socket power savings with less than 5% performance impact for any given workload. New innovations in air and liquid cooling further reduce total energy consumption in the data center.