Pointed out that the 4th generation ``Xeon SP'' that evolved into a chiplet will play a major role in Intel's future



On January 10, 2023, local time, Intel announced that it has launched a data center CPU that has been under development under the codename 'Sapphire Rapids' as

the 4th generation Xeon Scalable Processor (Xeon SP). This 4th generation Xeon SP is notoriously underdeveloped for many years. The New York Times points out that such a 4th generation Xeon SP is an important chip for Intel's future.

Inside Intel's Delays in Delivering a Crucial New Microprocessor - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/technology/intel-sapphire-rapids-microprocessor.html

Intel Launches Sapphire Rapids Fourth-Gen Xeon CPUs and Ponte Vecchio Max GPU Series | Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-launches-sapphire-rapids-fourth-gen-xeon-cpus-and-ponte-vecchio-max-gpu-series

The 4th generation Xeon SP newly adopts chiplet technology and comes in two packages: XCC (eXtreme Core Count) and MCC (Medium Core Count). XCC is a chiplet that combines four 15-core CPU dies, and can achieve up to 60 cores in one package. MCC, on the other hand, is a monolithic die with up to 32 cores.

In XCC, four CPU dies are connected by a bridge chip called EMIB (Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge) developed by Intel, which makes it possible to mix multiple chips on one package. Each CPU die has four cores: 15-core CPU, memory controller, UPI controller, PCI Express controller, QAT (QuickAssist Technology), DLB (Dynamic Load Balancer), DSA (Data Streaming Accelerator), IAA (In-Memory Analytics Accelerator) Since it is equipped with a hardware accelerator, four of each are implemented in one package.

As a result, compared to the 3rd generation Xeon SP, the 4th generation Xeon SP can achieve 2.9 times the power efficiency of general-purpose calculations, and about 10 times the performance when calculating AI inference using AMX. It is said that it is



In May 2022, Intel's engineering team is confident that the commercial version of 'Sapphire Rapids', which has been in development for over five years as a powerful new microprocessor with high computing power for data centers, has finally been completed. I was. However, during a regular meeting to discuss 'Sapphire Rapids', it becomes clear that there is a serious technical flaw. This issue was so annoying that they had to postpone the release of 'Sapphire Rapids'.

Sandra Rivera , general manager of Intel's data center and AI group, looked back at the time and commented, ``We were pretty depressed'' and ``It was a tough decision.'' Development of Sapphire Rapids started in 2015 from discussions within a small team of engineers. Competitors such as AMD have introduced chiplet technology that combines multiple chips into one package, but Sapphire Rapids was the first for Intel to incorporate chiplet elements into the chip design. Shlomit Weiss, a chip architect at Intel, said of the development of Sapphire Rapids, ``It is very complicated because there are many interactions of elements. ” commented.

Intel postpones production of Xeon CPU ``Sapphire Rapids'' to the first quarter of 2022-GIGAZINE


by Michael Wyszomierski

Since the 1970s, Intel has been a leader in manufacturing and developing the tiny silicon chips that are at the heart of most electronic devices. However, ``Intel in recent years is losing its long-established lead in the manufacturing technology that determines the computing speed of the chip,'' points out The New York Times.

Patrick Gelsinger, who became Intel's CEO in 2021, was appointed CEO of the company to restore Intel's long-standing manufacturing advantage. He declared that he would build a new semiconductor manufacturing factory in the United States and was also a person who worked hard to enact the `` bill to reduce dependence on semiconductor manufacturing in Taiwan '' passed in the United States.

Therefore, The New York Times said, ``The production of Sapphire Rapids (4th generation Xeon SP) will be a great opportunity to prove whether Intel can deliver chips released in the future on time. It could affect computer manufacturers and cloud service providers, as well as the millions of users of technology-based online services.'

In fact, Lenovo's vice president of server sales, Kirk Scougen, commented, ``What we want is predictable and stable movement.'' ``Sapphire Rapids is the beginning of a new journey for Intel.'' This testifies to how important it is for the manufacturer to supply the chips that have been manufactured. In addition, Lenovo is planning 25 new systems based on the 4th generation Xeon SP, and at the time of writing the article, it seems that Intel's new 4th generation Xeon SP has great expectations.

The New York Times said, ``The pressure on Intel is great. Demand for chips used in personal computers is clearly declining, and Intel's most profitable business, the server chip market, is facing tough competition from other companies. And due to these issues, Intel's market value has plummeted by more than $ 120 billion (about 15.9 trillion yen) since Gelsinger became CEO.' On the other hand, Intel's CEO Gelsinger commented on the 4th generation Xeon SP, 'Although Sapphire Rapids was delayed in release, it has the potential to be a hit.'

Mr. Rivera, who was appointed as the head of the Sapphire Rapids development department by CEO Gelsinger in 2021, said that he thinks that ``Intel has packed too much innovation into the development of Sapphire Rapids,'' regarding the delay in the development of Sapphire Rapids. We should have released an unambitious product as soon as possible.' He also commented that more time should have been spent on 'design' and 'test' using computer simulation. By doing so, we were able to discover design bugs before manufacturing sample chips, which should have led to cost reductions.

In addition, Mr. Rivera commented that chip development based on the above lessons should have been successful before. Although there was a delay in the development of Sapphire Rapids, he said that by making use of the lessons learned this time, future chip development should be able to develop more smoothly.

in Hardware, Posted by logu_ii