Intel’s latest update over the performance and availability of its Sapphire Rapids

Intel recently updated its 10nm Sapphire Rapids Xeon CPU lineup news, and this new update has sparked various new rumours online. The newly released data talks about the next-gen server portfolio’s launch schedule, performance, and efficiency.

According to sources, Intel’s CVP & GM of Xeon & Memory Group, Lisa Spelman, made a huge announcement that the next-generation Sapphire Rapids lineup will start its production in Q1 2022 & Q2 2022. It was already made clear that Intel’s Sapphire Rapids will be officially launched for the public in the first half of 2022; however, it is planned that Intel will deliver early engineering samples to its partners to validate and optimize their workloads in advance.

Demand for Sapphire Rapids continues to grow as customers learn more about the benefits of the platform.

Given the breadth of enhancements in Sapphire Rapids, we are incorporating additional validation time before the production release, which will streamline the deployment process for our customers and partners. Based on this, we now expect Sapphire Rapids to be in production in the first quarter of 2022, with a ramp beginning in the second quarter of 2022. via Intel

In our previous post, we have already discussed how HBM will help intel carve a new generation of chips targeted at data centres. But the biggest talk of the town is that team blue announced the integration of the HBM within its Sapphire Rapids Xeon CPUs. This technology will tackle the huge memory bandwidth requirements of future HPC & data centre workloads.

However, we are also getting confirmation that the HBM supported Sapphire Rapids will be coming out in 2023. The reason behind the delay is probably unknown; however, intel has been severely affected by the shortage of chip manufacturing components and a limited supply chain.

Coming to intel’s current timeline and roadmap, it had internally projected a 2021 launch for its Sapphire Rapids Xeon lineup. But it was soon changed to the first half of 2022, stating that the actual availability of the lineup will still be further ahead. The company was also supposed to launch a few quarters after Ice Lake-SP, by the end of 2021, but that didn’t happen.

Next up is the first-ever comparison, of course unofficial, between the Intel Sapphire Rapids-SP 56 core SKU versus a 64 core AMD EPYC Milan SKU. If we are to believe the performance numbers of the test conducted, then Intel easily claims its performance leadership albeit for a short period. The lead will be in the field of AI, networking, and HPC workloads.

Intel Xeon SP Families:

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