Intel's launching its "Sapphire Rapids" Xeon processors in January 2023
Intel's Sapphire Rapids launch is after AMD's Zen 4 Genoa launch
Published: 2nd November 2022 | Source: Intel - Via Andreas Schilling |
Intel has confirmed the launch date of their 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processors
Following a series of delays, Intel has confirmed that they plan to launch their new "Sapphire Rapids" Xeon Scalable processors on January 10th 2022, new datacenter processors that are built using the company's Intel 7 lithography process.
Sapphire Rapids is a new multi-chip processor design from Intel that is designed to utilise multiple Intel 7 tiles that come together to make a larger completed processor. If this sounds similar to AMD's initial EPYC CPU designs, it is. That said, Intel has more advanced chip interconnects than what AMD's early EPYC processors offered.
Initially, Intel's Sapphire Rapids processors were expected to compete with AMD's 3rd Generation (Zen 3) EPYC processors, and with the reveal of this new release date, we now know that Intel's Sapphire Rapids launch date is two months after AMD's November 10th "together we advance_datacenter" event, where the company is expected to reveal 4th generation (Zen 4) EPYC products. Yes, Intel's Sapphire Rapids processors appear to be launching one generation late...
Reports earlier this year from Igor's Labs claimed that Intel's Sapphire Rapids processors had gone through at least 12 steppings before their silicon reached a finalised, shippable state. This large number of steppings is why Intel's Sapphire Rapids launch has been delayed until 2023, and why Sapphire Rapids is expected to be replaced by newer Emerald Rapids processors in late 2023.
Today's news regarding Intel's Sapphire Rapids processors paint a bleak picture for Intel within the server market. Delays will have shaken the confidence that Intel's customers have in the company, and AMD's upcoming launch of Zen 4 processors will give Intel's customers some good reasons to consider moving from Xeon to EPYC. This is especially true now that AMD's Zen 4 EPYC processors are now expected to launch first.
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