At the AI Everywhere event, Intel unveiled its fifth-generation Intel Xeon processors (codenamed Emerald Rapids), which deliver higher energy performance and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for critical workloads such as artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), networking, storage, databases, and security.
This launch marks the second upgrade of the Xeon family in less than a year, providing customers with more computing power and faster memory in the same power range as the previous generation. These processors are compatible with the software and platform of Intel Xeon processors, allowing customers to upgrade and maximize the life of their infrastructure investments while reducing costs and carbon emissions.
"Designed specifically for AI, 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors deliver increased performance for customers deploying AI capabilities in cloud, network, and edge use cases," said Sandra Rivera, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center and AI Group. "As a result of our long-standing collaboration with our customers, partners, and developer ecosystem, we have introduced 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors on a proven basis, which will allow us to quickly apply and scale with lower TCO. ”
With AI acceleration at every core, the 5th Gen Xeon processors meet the requirements of end-to-end AI workloads before customers need to add discrete accelerators, including up to 42% higher inference performance and less than 100 millisecond latency on large language models (LLMs) with 20 billion parameters.
These processors deliver an average 21% improvement in general compute performance and a 36% improvement in average performance per watt across a wide range of customer workloads compared to the previous generation of Xeon processors. Customers who follow a typical five-year update cycle and upgrade from an older generation can reduce their TCO by up to 77%.
Building on previous generations of processors, the fifth-generation Xeon processors bring new innovations that provide customers with performance and efficiency benefits. Fifth-generation Xeon processors support up to 64 cores per CPU and are almost three times the largest L1 cache of the previous generation. They offer 8 DDR5 lanes per CPU, support up to 5,600MTS of DDR5 transmission, and pass Intel UPI 20 increased bandwidth, providing up to 20GT s transmission. Selecting 5th Gen Xeon processor-based instances will support CXL Type 3 workflows through leading cloud service providers (CSPs).
The fifth-generation Xeon processors are pin-compatible with the previous generation, and top original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Cisco, Dell, HP, IEIT Systems, Lenovo, Supermicro, and more, will offer a wide selection of single-socket and **socket systems starting in Q1 2024. Major CSPs will announce the availability of 5th Gen Xeon processor instances this year.
Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) provides greater confidentiality and security at the virtual machine (VM) level, enhancing privacy and control over your data. Earlier this year, Intel introduced Xeon processors, which are available from select CSPs, and with the introduction of 5th Gen Xeon processors, Intel TDX will be universally available to all OEMs and CSP solution providers. In the Intel TDX Confidential VM, the guest operating system and VM applications are isolated from the cloud host, hypervisor, and other VMs on the platform.
Intel's new processors provide the company's customers and partners with impressive performance gains and overall benefits, as well as optimized performance gains across critical workloads.
With the launch of 4th Gen Xeon processors in January 2023 and 5th Gen Xeon processors today, Intel continues to deliver on its roadmap commitments to customers. Looking ahead, the upcoming Intel Xeon processors next year will make significant advances in energy efficiency and performance. Sierra Forest, with E-core efficiency and up to 288 cores, will arrive in the first half of 2024, followed by Granite Rapids with P-core performance.