Intel Unveils Xeon 6 Processors with Enhanced AI and Networking Capabilities

Intel launches Xeon 6500/6700 processors with performance cores

Intel has expanded its Xeon 6 'Granite Rapids' family of CPUs featuring high-performance cores with new offerings targeting AI, content delivery, networking, and storage applications. The new Xeon 6500 and Xeon 6700 series processors are designed for single-socket and multi-socket servers and feature up to 86 high-performance cores, an eight-channel memory subsystem, and up to 136 PCIe lanes to connect to various accelerators, such as AI processors. Intel's Xeon 6500 and Xeon 6700-series processors feature up to 86 cores. They are aimed at 1P, 2P, 4P, and 8P machines, thus serving a very wide range of applications, starting from entry-level single-processor machines all the way to enterprise-grade 8-way machines that are used to run business-critical and mission-critical workloads. The CPUs support up to 4TB of memory and feature up to eight DDR5 memory channels supporting DDR5-5200 (2 DPC), DDR5-6400 (1 DPC), and DDR5-8000 MRDIMM (1DPC) modules, up to four UPI 2.0 links at 24 GT/s, up to 88 PCIe lanes for multi-socket systems or up to 136 PCIe lanes for single-socket designs (as Intel re-used UPI links for CPU-to-CPU connectivity as PCIe links). In addition, the CPUs support 64 PCIe lanes with CXL 2.0 on top, as well as Intel AMX and AVX-512 for AI and media coding acceleration. As the CPUs feature up to 86 cores, the maximum thermal design power of Xeon 6500 and Xeon 6700-series CPUs does not exceed 350W. Intel says it has maximized per-core performance, which would benefit various applications. While Intel claims the new chips are faster than their predecessors by 14% - 54%, depending on the workload, the relatively low core count and frequency pretty much limit usage of Intel's Xeon 6500/6700 processors to applications that do not benefit from the extreme core count of 128 per socket and do not need maximum per-core performance. Arguably, Intel does it to ensure that its most expensive Xeon 6900P-series processors remain CPUs of choice for performance-demanding workloads. Nonetheless, if a company wants to build an 8-way machine with the maximum possible number of cores (688), it will have to choose a Xeon 6700P CPU. One of the interesting features of Intel's Xeon 6500 and Xeon 6700-series processors is support of the Intel TDX Connect technology that enables encrypted connection between the CPU and PCIe devices with direct memory access and lower overhead, which allows to transfer confidential data to be processed on the GPU, which will be useful for various workloads, including AI. Since Intel's Xeon 6500/6700-series processors feature lower number of cores, they use fewer Granite Rapids compute chiplets: one (for SKUs with up to 48 cores) or two (for up to 86-core models). Also, the new CPUs use a smaller LGA4710-2 packaging and are compatible with Intel's Socket E2, so they are not compatible with platforms for Intel's Xeon 6700E and 6900P. In addition to launching Xeon 6500 and Xeon 6700-series processors for mainstream servers, Intel also unveiled Xeon 6300-series processors with up to eight cores for uniprocessor servers as well as Intel Xeon 6 SoC processors with up to 72 cores that feature Intel vRAN and Media Transcode accelerators as well as integrated Intel Ethernet for enterprise edge servers and network appliances.

Intel Unveils New Xeon 6 Series Chipsets With Focus on AI Workloads

The company says the chip supports AI tasks, enterprise apps, and HPC Intel unveiled two new processor series in the Xeon 6 family on Monday. Dubbed Intel Xeon 6700 and Xeon 6500 series, the new processors offer improved performance and power efficiency compared to the previous generation. It is based on the x86 computer architecture and comes with up to 86 cores. The chipmaker claimed that the newly launched chipsets also feature dedicated Performance cores (P-cores) and are aimed at complex artificial intelligence (AI) tasks, traditional enterprise apps, and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions. In a newsroom post, the chipmaker detailed the new processors in the Intel Xeon 6 family. Alongside the 6700 and 6500 series, the company also unveiled Xeon 6 for network and edge, a system-on-chip (SoC) designed for high performance and power efficiency. Notably, these are not retail-focused processors, and are instead aimed at data centres. According to the company, the Intel Xeon 6700 and 6500 series processors with P-cores offer 1.4X higher performance compared to the fifth generation of Intel Xeon processors, and can also handle a more diverse set of workloads, with a focus on enterprise tasks. The company said that it is also designed to work with AI systems and can handle complex tasks. Compared to the fifth-generation AMD EPYC processors, the Xeon 6700 and 6500 series chipsets are claimed to offer up to 1.5X better performance in AI inference while using only two-thirds of the cores. Intel also claimed that the chipsets offer improved performance-per-watt efficiency allowing for 5:1 consolidation of a five-year-old server on average. Coming to technical specifications, the new chipsets feature up to 86 cores with a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of between 150 to 300W. It comes with up to eight channels of DDR5 MRDIMM (multiplex ranked DIMM) memory, up to 88 lanes for PCIe 5.0 which goes up to 136 lanes for single socket design, as well as 64 lanes CXL 2.0. On the other hand, the Intel Xeon 6 for network and edge uses in-built accelerators for virtualised radio access networks (vRAN), media, AI, and network security. The company said the processor is designed to address the growing demand for network and edge solutions in the AI-driven world. These SoCs also deliver a 70 percent improvement in performance-per-watt with 2.4X the RAN capacity compared to the previous generation. The Xeon 6 for network and edge also features the Intel Media Transcode Accelerator, an in-built media accelerator that further improves power optimisation.

Intel Unveils AI and Networking Solutions with Xeon 6 Processors

The Intel Xeon 6700/6500 series processor with P-cores is the ideal CPU for modern data centers, offering the perfect balance between performance and energy efficiency. Delivering an average of 1.4x better performance than the previous generation across a wide range of enterprise workloads, Xeon 6 is also the foundational central processing unit (CPU) for AI systems, pairing exceptionally well with a GPU as a host node CPU. When compared to 5th Generation AMD EPYC processors, Xeon 6 provides up to 1.5x better performance in AI inference on chip using one-third fewer cores. Xeon 6 processors also enable substantial performance-per-watt efficiency, allowing for 5:1 consolidation of a 5-year-old server on average, with potential for up to 10:1 in certain use cases, resulting in up to 68% savings in total cost of ownership (TCO). There's a single-socket model with 136 PCIe lanes, as well as a multi-CPU model with 88 PCIe lanes that supports up to eight sockets. This lineup offers a maximum of 86 cores, memory that can stretch across eight channels, and an operating clock that handles DDR5 speeds up to 6,400MHz. For those who crave even faster performance, MRDIMM support goes all the way up to 8,000MHz The Intel Xeon 6 for network and edge is a system-on-chip (SoC) designed for high performance and power efficiency. It leverages Intel's built-in accelerators for virtualized radio access networks (vRAN), media, AI and network security, addressing the growing demand for network and edge solutions in an AI-driven world. Xeon 6 SoCs deliver up to 2.4x the RAN capacity and a 70% improvement in performance-per-watt compared to previous generations thanks to Intel vRAN Boost. Additionally, Xeon 6 is the industry's first server SoC with a built-in media accelerator -- the Intel Media Transcode Accelerator -- enabling up to 14x performance per watt gain versus Intel Xeon 6538. The World's Best CPU for AI As AI adoption continues to accelerate, organizations are projected to spend up to $153 billion on generative AI (GenAI) by 2027, with total spending for machine learning and analytics reaching $361 billion, according to IDC. Intel Xeon 6 is optimized to capture a significant share of this growing market, delivering leadership performance in traditional machine learning, smaller GenAI models and GPU-accelerated workloads in a host CPU capacity. Intel is collaborating with silicon, software and solution providers to enable the AI ecosystem, reinforcing Xeon 6 as the go-to CPU for AI systems. Leadership Performance for Modern Telecommunications Networks With 5G and AI poised to transform connectivity, traditional network optimization strategies are no longer sufficient. To unlock the full potential of next-gen networks and connectivity, telecom operators are adopting technologies like network slicing, AI-powered radio controllers and cloud-native architectures. By leveraging Intel's unified Xeon platform, operators can dynamically optimize workloads, reduce costs and build scalable, flexible networks that adapt in real time to changing customer demands, traffic patterns and market shifts. Key performance highlights of the Intel Xeon 6 SoC include: Webroot CSI upload model inference is up to 4.3x faster than Intel Xeon D-2899NT. AI RAN performance per core is improved by up to 3.2x compared with the previous generation with vRAN Boost. A 38-core system supports int8 inferencing of up to 38 simultaneous camera streams on a video edge server. New Advanced Ethernet Solutions Intel also unveiled two new Ethernet controller and network adapter product lines to address the growing demands of enterprise, telecommunications, cloud, high performance computing (HPC), edge and AI applications. Initial availability includes dual-port 25GbE PCIe and OCP 3.0-compliant adapters, with additional configurations expected this year. The Intel Ethernet E830 Controllers and Network Adapters deliver up to 200GbE bandwidth, flexible port configurations and advanced precision time capabilities, including Precision Time Measurement (PTM). These adapters are optimized for high-density virtualized workloads, offering robust security features and performance. The Intel Ethernet E610 Controllers and Network Adapters provide 10GBASE-T connectivity optimized for control plane operations. The 610 series offers outstanding power efficiency, advanced manageability and robust security features that simplify network administration and ensure maximum network integrity. The combination of Intel Xeon 6 processors and high-performance Ethernet connectivity forms a powerful foundation for businesses to accelerate innovation and gain a competitive advantage.

Intel Unveils Leadership AI and Networking Solutions with Xeon 6 Processors

Today, Intel launched its Xeon 6 processors with Performance-cores (P-cores), providing industry-leading performance for the broadest set of data center and network infrastructure workloads and best-in-class efficiency to create an unmatched server consolidation opportunity. "We are intensely focused on bringing cutting-edge leadership products to market that solve our customers' greatest challenges and help drive the growth of their business," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products. "The Xeon 6 family delivers the industry's best CPU for AI and groundbreaking features for networking, while simultaneously driving efficiency and bringing down the total cost of ownership." Introducing New Intel Xeon 6 Processors Intel's latest Xeon 6 processors feature significant advancements in both data center and networking portfolios. The Intel® Xeon® 6700/6500 series processor with P-cores is the ideal CPU for modern data centers, offering the perfect balance between performance and energy efficiency. Delivering an average of 1.4x better performance than the previous generation3 across a wide range of enterprise workloads, Xeon 6 is also the foundational central processing unit (CPU) for AI systems, pairing exceptionally well with a GPU as a host node CPU. When compared to 5th Generation AMD EPYC processors, Xeon 6 provides up to 1.5x better performance in AI inference on chip using one-third fewer cores4. Xeon 6 processors also enable substantial performance-per-watt efficiency, allowing for 5:1 consolidation of a 5-year-old server on average5, with potential for up to 10:1 in certain use cases, resulting in up to 68% savings in total cost of ownership (TCO)6. The Intel Xeon 6 for network and edge is a system-on-chip (SoC) designed for high performance and power efficiency. It leverages Intel's built-in accelerators for virtualized radio access networks (vRAN), media, AI and network security, addressing the growing demand for network and edge solutions in an AI-driven world. Xeon 6 SoCs deliver up to 2.4x the RAN capacity7 and a 70% improvement in performance-per-watt compared to previous generations8 thanks to Intel vRAN Boost. Additionally, Xeon 6 is the industry's first server SoC with a built-in media accelerator -- the Intel® Media Transcode Accelerator -- enabling up to 14x performance per watt gain versus Intel Xeon 6538N 9. Please find more information below: Full Newsbyte: https://newsroom.intel.com/data-center/intel-unveils-leadership-ai-networking-solutions-xeon-6-processors Press Kit: https://newsroom.intel.com/press-kit/press-kit-intel-xeon-6-processors

Intel launches Xeon 6 processors with performance cores for 2X AI processing

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Intel is launching its new Intel Xeon 6 processors with performance-cores, offering better performance across data center workloads and up to two times higher performance in AI processing. The company has new Xeon 6 processors for network and edge applications with built-in Intel vRAN Boost deliver up to 2.4 times the capacity for radio access network (RAN) workloads. . It's an important launch for the company that was once the world's biggest chip maker, as it replaced its CEO late last year with two interim co-CEOs amid a slump. Intel hopes to restore its former glory through a combination of better chips and a big investment in U.S. manufacturing technology aided by subsidies from the U.S. Chips & Science Act. Intel has faced tough competition from AMD, which has gained market share for years thanks to its Zen architecture for central processing units (CPUs), and competition from Nvidia, which has become of of the world's most valuable companies thanks to its graphics processing units (GPUs) and AI processors. As enterprises modernize infrastructure to meet the demands of next-gen workloads like AI, high-performing and efficient compute is essential across the full spectrum - from data centers to networks, edge and even the PC. To address these challenges, Intel today launched its Xeon 6 processors with performance-cores (P-cores), providing high performance for the broadest set of data center and network infrastructure workloads and best-in-class efficiency to create a server consolidation opportunity. "We are intensely focused on bringing cutting-edge leadership products to market that solve our customers' greatest challenges and help drive the growth of their business," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products, in a statement. "The Xeon 6 family delivers the industry's best CPU for AI and groundbreaking features for networking, while simultaneously driving efficiency and bringing down the total cost of ownership." The Intel Xeon 6700/6500 series processor with P-cores is the ideal CPU for modern data centers, offering the perfect balance between performance and energy efficiency, Intel said. Delivering an average of 1.4 times better performance than the previous generation. Working across a wide range of enterprise workloads, Xeon 6 is also the foundational central processing unit (CPU) for AI systems, pairing exceptionally well with a GPU as a host node CPU. When compared to 5th Generation AMD Epyc processors, Xeon 6 provides up to 1.5 times better performance in AI inference on chip using one-third fewer cores, Intel said. Xeon 6 processors also enable substantial performance-per-watt efficiency, allowing for 5:1 consolidation of a five-year-old server on average with potential for up to 10:1 in certain use cases, resulting in up to 68% savings in total cost of ownership (TCO), Intel said. The Intel Xeon 6 for network and edge is a system-on-chip (SoC) designed for high performance and power efficiency. It leverages Intel's built-in accelerators for virtualized radio access networks (vRAN), media, AI and network security, addressing the growing demand for network and edge solutions in an AI-driven world. Xeon 6 SoCs deliver up to 2.4 times the RAN capacity and a 70% improvement in performance-per-watt compared to previous generations. Additionally, Xeon 6 is the industry's first server SoC with a built-in media accelerator -- the Intel® Media Transcode Accelerator -- enabling up to 14 times performance per watt gain versus Intel Xeon 6538N 9. Intel said it's the world's best CPU for AI. As AI adoption continues to accelerate, organizations are projected to spend up to $153 billion on generative AI (GenAI) by 2027, with total spending for machine learning and analytics reaching $361 billion, according to market analyst firm IDC. Intel Xeon 6 is optimized to capture a significant share of this growing market, delivering leadership performance in traditional machine learning, smaller GenAI models and GPU-accelerated workloads in a host CPU capacity. Intel is collaborating with silicon, software and solution providers to enable the AI ecosystem, reinforcing Xeon 6 as the go-to CPU for AI systems. Leadership performance for modern telecommunications networks With 5G and AI poised to transform connectivity, traditional network optimization strategies are no longer sufficient. To unlock the full potential of next-gen networks and connectivity, telecom operators are adopting technologies like network slicing, AI-powered radio controllers and cloud-native architectures. By leveraging Intel's unified Xeon platform, operators can dynamically optimize workloads, reduce costs and build scalable, flexible networks that adapt in real time to changing customer demands, traffic patterns and market shifts. Intel also unveiled two new Ethernet controller and network adapter product lines to address the growing demands of enterprise, telecommunications, cloud, high performance computing (HPC), edge and AI applications. Initial availability includes dual-port 25GbE PCIe and OCP 3.0-compliant adapters, with additional configurations expected this year. The Intel Ethernet E830 Controllers and Network Adapters deliver up to 200GbE bandwidth, flexible port configurations and advanced precision time capabilities, including Precision Time Measurement (PTM). These adapters are optimized for high-density virtualized workloads, offering security features and performance. The Intel Ethernet E610 Controllers and Network Adapters provide 10GBASET connectivity optimized for control plane operations. The 610 series offers outstanding power efficiency, advanced manageability and robust security features that simplify network administration and ensure maximum network integrity. The combination of Intel Xeon 6 processors and high-performance Ethernet connectivity forms a powerful foundation for businesses to accelerate innovation and gain a competitive advantage. Broad OEM partner and ecosystem adoption Intel Xeon 6 processors have already seen broad adoption across the data center ecosystem, with more than 500 designs available now or in progress. Server systems, software solutions and services will be available around the globe from leading companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Samsung, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nutanix, Nvidia, Oracle, Red Hat, SAP, Supermicro, Vodafone, VMware and Wind River, among many others.

Intel Debuts Midrange Xeon 6 CPUs To Fight AMD In Enterprise Data Centers

In launching its new midrange Xeon 6700P and 6500P server CPUs for enterprise data centers, Intel says its expanding Xeon 6 family can best AMD in performance and enable lower total cost of ownership for data centers across several workloads. Intel said its new midrange Xeon 6 processors will help customers consolidate data centers for a broad range of enterprise applications and that they enable superior performance and lower total cost of ownership than AMD's latest server CPUs. Using the same performance cores of the high-end Xeon 6900P series that debuted with up to 128 cores using 500 watts last year, the Xeon 6700P series scales to 86 cores on 350 watts while the Xeon 6500P series reaches up to 32 cores on 225 watts, opening the Xeon 6 family for a broader swath of the data center market. [Related: Intel Says It Won't 'Broadly' Deploy 288-Core Xeon 6900E Server CPU] The semiconductor giant marked the launch of the Xeon 6700P and 6500P processors alongside the low-end Xeon 6300P series, the Xeon 6 system-on-chips for network and edge applications, and two new Ethernet product lines Monday. The announcement came more than three weeks after interim Intel co-CEO and Intel Products CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus vowed to "stabilize" Intel's dominant but waning server CPU market share, saying that "this year is all about improving Xeon's competitive position as we fight harder to close the gap to competition." Intel said its Xeon 6 processors "have already seen broad adoption across the data center ecosystem, with more than 500 designs available now or in progress" from major vendors such as Dell Technologies, Nvidia, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo, Microsoft, VMware, Supermicro, Oracle, Red Hat and Nutanix, "among many others." In a briefing with journalists and analysts last week, Intel shared several examples of where the Xeon 6900P and 6700P series performed better and enabled a lower total cost of ownership than those from AMD's fifth-generation EPYC CPU lineup, which debuted last year. This marked the first time Intel provided several competitive performance comparisons for the flagship Xeon 6900P series since it launched in the third quarter of last year. For instance, the company said internal testing showed that the Xeon 6900P series is faster than AMD's EPYC 9005 series across four applications for data and web services when comparing similar chips at different performance levels. The Xeon chips were 62 percent faster for NGINX TLS 1.3, 17 percent faster for Mongo DB, 14 percent faster for Redis Memtier and 10 percent faster for Redis vector similarity search, according to Intel. In high-performance computing, Intel showed higher gains for the Xeon 6900P series against AMD's EPYC 9005 series: 52 percent faster for the HPCG benchmark test, 43 percent faster for the OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamics model, 23 percent faster for the LAMMPS molecular dynamics workload and 15 percent faster for the WRF weather prediction system. But it was across four AI workloads where Intel said its Xeon 6900P series had the biggest advantage. Compared with AMD's 128-core EPYC 9755, Intel's flagship,128-core Xeon 6980P ran 2.17 times faster for the ResNet-50 image classification model, 87 percent faster for the DLRM recommender system model, 85 percent faster for the BERT-large language processing model and 76 percent faster for a transformer-based object detection vision model. The company also said its 86-core Xeon 6787P has a performance advantage over AMD's 128-core EPYC 9755 across multiple AI workloads: 3 percent faster for the LCM image construction model, 27 percent faster for BERT-large, 53 percent faster for ResNet-50, 25 percent faster for the transformer-based vision model and 21 percent faster for DLRM. In a single-socket server, Intel said that its 64-core Xeon 6767P has a performance advantage over AMD's 64-core EPYC 9575F for vector databases. When it comes to vector database indexing, Intel said the workload can take advantage of the CPU's Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) for a 30 percent speed-up. As for graph-based similarity search, the CPU can run 2.6 times faster by using its Scalable Vector Search feature. Intel also provided four examples of how the Xeon 6900P and 6700P series can not only provide better performance than AMD's EPYC 9005 series but also lower data center costs. For example, the company said the 128-core Xeon 6980P can enable 87 percent faster server performance than AMD's 128-core EPYC 9755 for the DLRM recommendation system model, resulting in a total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction of 46 percent. For the OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamics workload, Intel said the CPU can enable a 28 percent TCO reduction with a 43 percent performance improvement in servers. As for the Xeon 6700P series, Intel said the 64-core Xeon 6760P CPU can enable a 41 percent TCO savings for the NGIX TLS web services application with a 55 percent server performance boost over AMD's 64-core EPYC 9535. The processors can also enable a 52 percent TCO reduction for a transformer-based image construction vision model with a 2.09 percent performance improvement for servers. While Intel said the Xeon 6700P and 6500P series deliver "significant gains" over their fifth-generation counterparts across a broad range of workloads, the company took time to point out how the new chips can offer a substantial upgrade over its second-gen Xeon CPUs, not just for performance but also space, energy and money. This is because the semiconductor giant believes there are ample opportunities to upgrade aging data center infrastructure, even as customers try to keep them running for longer. "When we're talking to our customers, our customers are living longer on the infrastructure that they have, but they're also saying, 'I have issues with my infrastructure,'" said Ronak Singhal, senior fellow and chief architect of Xeon products, in last week's briefing. For example, Singhal said, the ongoing demand for AI applications is pushing customers to figure out how to free up extra power within fixed infrastructure. He also pointed to customers looking to lower their energy consumption to meet sustainability goals or improve the manageability or security aspects of their data centers. With Intel's first- and second-gen Xeon processors representing a "significant volume of what's deployed across all data centers today," the company's Xeon 6 processors can help customers significantly consolidate that infrastructure, according to Singhal. One example from Intel pointed to a data center for MySQL data services consisting of 780 single-socket servers running on 28-core Xeon 8280 processors from the second generation. With 86-core Xeon 6787P chips improving performance by nearly 4.3 times, the company said the CPUs could enable the data center to reduce its server fleet to 180. Across a four-year timeline, this would result in the data center reducing energy consumption by 14,735 megawatt-hours and CO2 emissions by 6,247 metric tons, according to Intel. It would also result in lower costs for cooling and hardware maintenance. All of this would result in a TCO savings of $3.3 million over four years, which would amount to a 29 percent savings. Intel said the TCO savings can be greater for some workloads, such as MongoDB for data services and NGINX TLS for web services. For those workloads, the company said the Xeon 6787P processors can enable a TCO reduction of 44 percent and 67 percent, respectively, representing millions of dollars in savings across four years. While customers can use Xeon 6 to reduce their data center footprint, they can also use the chips to crank up application performance and still use less energy, according to Singhal. "It's a significant footprint reduction that they can have at the same performance or significantly higher performance at lower power, and so they have different opportunities on how they want to play this," he said. With the Xeon 6700P series scaling up to 86 cores and the Xeon 6500P series scaling up to 32 cores, the lineup includes processors for servers with one, two, four or eight sockets. These processors support up to eight channels of DDR5 memory with speeds of up to 6,400 mega transfers per second (MT/s). Several Xeon 6700P models can reach 8,000 MT/s by using the new, high-performance DDR5 MRDIMM modules. While the Xeon 6700P and 6500P models for dual-, four- and eight-socket servers support 88 PCIe lanes, the single-socket models go up to 136 lanes for higher PCIe device density. The processors come with Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) for application isolation and Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) for virtual machine isolation. They also support Intel TDX Connect, which provides a "high-performance encrypted connection between the CPU and PCIe devices," such as a GPU, according to Intel. Other features include up to four Ultra Path Interconnect 2.0 links for CPU-to-CPU transfer speeds of up to 24 giga transfers per second, a maximum of 64 CXL 2.0 lanes, the CXL-adjacent flat memory mode for reducing memory costs as well as Intel AMX and Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (AVX-512) for AI acceleration.

Intel Xeon 6 processors look to take the fight to Nvidia when it comes to powering your next data center and AI workloads

New offerings promise increased performance and efficiency in data center and with AI Intel has unveiled its latest range of data center hardware as it looks to keep pace with the likes of Nvidia and AMD. The new Xeon 6 processors with P-cores provide a major boost in power and intelligence as Intel states its claim to stay at the top of the charts when it comes to AI processing and other crucial enterprise tasks. But the new series isn't limited to the data center, with Intel promising improved performance across network and edge infrastructure alongside server and data center workloads. "We are intensely focused on bringing cutting-edge leadership products to market that solve our customers' greatest challenges and help drive the growth of their business," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products. "The Xeon 6 family delivers the industry's best CPU for AI and groundbreaking features for networking, while simultaneously driving efficiency and bringing down the total cost of ownership." Designed for the data center, the new Intel Xeon 6700P/6500P series features the company's P-cores, offering what it says is the "perfect balance between performance and energy efficiency". Offering up to 86 cores, Intel is promising an average of 1.4x improved performance on a number of enterprise workloads compared to the previous generation, and 1.5x better performance in AI inference on chip compared to AMD's 5th-Gen EPYC, whilst also using one-third fewer cores. But this power also brings improved efficiency, allowing for much greater consolidation on five or even ten-year-old servers, with Intel saying the Xeon 6 with P-cores is an ideal option for businesses looking to refresh aging infrastructure to better deal with new AI tasks. Describing the new offerings as the, "world's best CPU for AI", the Xeon P-core chips offer more bandwidth and cache, with up to 504MB low latency LLC and support for MRDIMM memory, alongside built-in AI accelerators and a comprehensive software suite across classical ML and small GenAI models. The Xeon 6 for network and edge is Intel's most-developed SoC, designed for a wide range of use cases, and again promising greater performance and efficiency than ever. The chip includes Intel vRAN Boost built-in, allowing for up to 2.4x the capacity for RAN networks, which could be vital as demand for such connections continues to increase. The Xeon 6 will also be the first in the industry to feature a built-in media accelerator, with the Intel Media Transcode Accelator offering up to 14x performance per watt gain versus previous models. Intel says both releases will be ideal for businesses looking to expand and evolve their AI-ready workforces and processes, allowing them to optimize workloads, reduce costs and build network which are flexible and scalable when needed.

Intel touts new Xeon chip's AI power in bid to fend off AMD, ARM advances

Intel on Monday revealed new versions of its Xeon 6 server processors, in a bid to proliferate AI processing throughout its data center product line as it fends off incursions on two fronts -- from AMD and ARM Holdings. The new processors, dubbed Xeon 6 6500 and 6700, extend the chip giant's product lineup first announced in September 2024. Code-named "Granite Rapids," the Xeon 6 chips feature what are called performance cores, dozens of individual computing elements designed to deliver the most powerful computing activity in the company's chip lineup. Also: The fall of Intel: How gen AI helped dethrone a giant and transform computing as we know it Intel's initial 6900 Xeon 6 chips, announced in September, offer 128 of the performance cores in each chip, whereas the 6500 and 6700 chips offer lower core counts, 16 to 86, at lower prices and lower power consumption. (A separate series of chips, the "E" series, is meant to focus on energy efficiency in Xeon 6.) In a briefing with media prior to Monday's announcement, Intel chief architect Ronak Singhal emphasized the abilities of the 6500 and 6700 against AMD's latest x86-based CPUs, the 9005, code-named "Turin." The Xeon chips perform higher computation with fewer of the cores than AMD's 9005, said Singhal, making for a lower total cost of operation (TCO), claimed Singhal. He showed a slide referencing "up to 50% higher AI performance with one third less cores." "Even at the lower core counts, we're able to provide higher performance across the range of these workloads," said Singhal, where workloads range from "general compute," such as running databases, to "high-performance computing," such as running scientific models, to AI broadly, including inference and training of AI models. Singhal emphasized the company's proliferation of special AI-friendly operations in the Granite Rapids chips, known as Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX). Those chip instructions allow the cores to perform the matrix multiplications of linear algebra, which make up most of AI processing, alongside traditional computer instructions. The AMX instructions are winning Xeon more usage at cloud computing giants, said Singhal. "For instance, go to your favorite cloud service provider, and see what they're saying about using AMX with their end customers," said Singhal. "You'll see them talk about how their end customers are renting Xeon instances to take advantage of AMX, how they're doing that in some confidential compute scenarios." Also: AI data centers are becoming 'mind-blowingly large' The announcement of the 6500 and 6700 is largely as expected, another step in Intel's quest to keep its products at least comparable to competitors as its prominence in the chip world has drastically declined in recent years. Intel has seen its financial results plummet as AMD and ARM have increased their sales in the data center. In the September quarter of last year, AMD's quarterly revenue from the data center, $3.5 billion, surpassed Intel's, $3.3 billion, for the first time ever. As a result, according to industry research firm TechInsights, Intel's share of the x86 server chip market, a decades-long duopoly between Intel and AMD, has gone from 96% in the first quarter of 2020 to 65% at present, while AMD's share has ballooned from four percent to 35%. ARM, which doesn't make chips but sells designs to chip makers as intellectual property, has a much smaller base of revenue, but it is seeing notable growth from data center uses of its designs. The cloud giants, Google and the rest, are relying on ARM's designs to make their custom chips such as Google's TPU and Amazon's Graviton processor rather than Intel's x86 technology. In the past 12 months, roughly 10% of ARM's estimated $3.6 billion in revenue came from networking and data center applications, according to analysts. ARM's projected revenue growth of 26% for the year is due in no small part to increasing sales into the data center, the company has indicated. Also: Google just made AI coding assistance free for everyone - with very generous limits Exact figures for ARM's share in total data center processor sales are unavailable, but any royalties ARM gets as Google and others deploy more non-x86 chips is only upside for ARM and a loss for Intel (and AMD, to a lesser extent). Intel makes the case that the Xeon parts, especially the new 6500 and 6700, can be more generally useful for a broad set of enterprise applications, thereby lowering a company's TCO versus going with either AMD or ARM chips. "This is really focused on the broad enterprise, and all of the different use cases there, with a specific focus then on AI and security and how do we provide our customers with something that improves their investment in their infrastructure," said Singhal. The idea, said Singhal, is to "allow [enterprises] to consolidate old infrastructure into this new infrastructure that has better capabilities for new workloads and can reduce their power footprint." Also: If Intel can't come up with a Qualcomm-killer soon, it's game over for x86 PCs However, Intel -- whose CEO Pat Gelsinger departed late last year -- is still pressed to deliver the most cutting-edge advances, according to TechInsights. In the media briefing, Singhal emphasized that the company's successor to Granite Rapids, the code-named Clearwater Forest Xeon chip, is "on track" for production in the first half of next year. "We have it in the lab today" with customer tests, said Singhal. However, that is a delay versus an expected debut of Clearwater Forest later this year, according to TechInsights. Also, Intel's dedicated AI chip, the Gaudi 3, failed to meet Intel's own internal sales targets last year, according to TechInsights. That means "Intel has effectively exited the AI accelerator race, leaving AMD and NVIDIA as the only major players." A successor chip, Falcon Shores, has since been set aside, and Intel looks to a new product, Jaguar Shores, expected sometime in 2027.

Intel Unveils Xeon 6 Chips, Doubling AI Performance and Powering Next-Gen Data Centers - Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

Intel Corp INTC launched new Intel Xeon 6 processors with Performance cores across data center workloads and up to 2 times higher performance in AI processing to meet the demands of next-generation workloads like AI and high-performing and efficient computing. New Xeon 6 processors for network and edge applications with built-in Intel vRAN Boost deliver up to 2.4 times the radio access network (RAN) workload capacity. The Intel Xeon 6700/6500 series processor with P-cores is the ideal CPU for modern data centers, delivering an average of 1.4x better performance than the previous generation across a wide range of enterprise workloads, Xeon 6 is also the foundational central processing unit (CPU) for AI systems. Also Read: AMD Closing Competitive GPU Gap With Nvidia, Gains Market Share From Intel In Client And Server Markets: Analyst The Intel Xeon 6 for network and edge is a system-on-chip (SoC) designed for high performance and power efficiency. It leverages Intel's built-in accelerators for virtualized radio access networks (vRAN), media, AI, and network security, delivering up to 2.4x the RAN capacity7 and a 70% improvement in performance-per-watt compared to previous generations. As AI adoption continues to accelerate, organizations will likely spend up to $153 billion on generative AI (GenAI) by 2027, with total spending for machine learning and analytics reaching $361 billion, according to IDC. Intel stock plunged over 43% in the last 12 months, with reports indicating Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co TSM and Broadcom Inc AVGO are considering acquiring the struggling chipmaker. Oppenheimer and Stifel noted that Intel continues to lose market share to Advanced Micro Devices, Inc AMD in its Client Computing Group and Data Center segments, prompting them to remain on the sidelines regarding a possible turnaround for the chipmaker. Price Action: INTC stock is down 0.54% at $24.74 at last check Monday. Next Read: Microsoft Cancels Some Data Center Leases, Raises Questions on AI Expansion Strategy Image via Shutterstock INTCIntel Corp$24.68-0.77%OverviewAMDAdvanced Micro Devices Inc$109.81-0.93%AVGOBroadcom Inc$214.71-1.81%TSMTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd$194.09-2.09%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Intel Xeon 6 P-Core chips aim to outpace AMD and boost AI datacenter business

Intel hasn't had it easy of late. Between internal tumult and aggressive competition from both AMD and NVIDIA, the semiconductor giant's been navigating choppy waters. But with the launch of its new Xeon 6 processors - featuring performance-focused P-cores - Intel is trying to make a statement. It's not just around to survive, but wants to reclaim the throne as the go-to name in data center innovation. Also read: Intel launches powerful Xeon 6 and Gaudi 3 AI chips amid stiff competition While many pegged the once-dominant CPU maker as lagging behind, the Xeon 6 P-core rollout makes it clear that Intel still wields some serious engineering chops - and a willingness to move the ball forward even under pressure. It's trying to do that in the only way it knows best - championing the cause of x86 in the datacenter by addressing its evolving demands for robust AI workloads, serious networking muscle, and more eco-friendly computing. In June 2024, Intel unveiled Xeon 6 E-core chips at Computex 2024. Now come the P-cores. One might say Intel's filling out the product line to ensure no matter the workload - heavy AI or general-purpose computing - there's a Xeon solution for enterprise and business customers of all shapes and sizes. That's a broader stroke to remain top-of-mind in data center designs. While E-core chips cater to specialized tasks, the P-cores are pitched as the all-around workhorse. If you're a cloud provider, you might want the best of both worlds: specialized E-cores for certain tasks, broad-range P-cores for others. We can't ignore the fact that Intel's grip on the data center scene has slipped a bit. AMD's EPYC chips have carved out a chunk of market share, and NVIDIA is expanding into CPU territory, too. The broadening of Intel's Xeon lineup is a direct message that Intel's technology stack still has the depth to meet all data center needs. It's Intel's reassertion of a leadership that some thought was disappearing fast. The Intel Xeon 6700/6500 series processor with P-cores is touting up to a 2x AI processing speed bump versus prior generations, with a typical 1.4x performance lift in other core tasks. And it's showcasing benchmark scores to emphasise this point, which in the real world translates into serious headroom for datacenters juggling everything from generative AI to standard enterprise apps. In an era where microseconds can decide competitive advantage, that edge is important. According to Intel, the new Xeons aim to handle both "vanilla" tasks (like basic virtualization) and advanced AI training or inference sessions. If you're a big retailer looking to parse real-time stock data or run complex recommendations, this sort of horsepower can slash decision times dramatically. Intel also claims the new Xeon P-core chips deliver a level of consolidation previously only reserved for specialized hardware, potentially saving both rack space and power bills. Intel's marketing mentions "built-in accelerators," including Intel vRAN Boost, specifically targeting radio access network (RAN) performance. That's crucial in a 5G era, where networks and edge deployments require minimal latency. A 2.4x capacity bump in RAN tasks is no small feat - particularly for telcos trying to handle ever-rising data loads. Edge computing is, arguably, the next big leap in reducing latency and improving real-time analytics. Everyone from LLM and foundational AI model makers to big tech enterprises believe that more and more intelligence and data processing is happening not inside remote datacenters but devices at the edge, from smartphones and laptops to small local servers inside offices. Intel's design choices on the Xeon 6 P-core chips - like integrated accelerators for media processing or network security - are meant to let data get processed closer to the source. For use cases such as autonomous cars or smart factories, that "local intelligence" can be make-or-break. Nowhere is this more important than in the telecommunications industry, where telecom operators are constantly under the gun: everyone demands faster speeds, more coverage, and lower costs. If Intel's offering can deliver flexible AI-based radio controllers and advanced network slicing, as it claims, it could help carriers transition to next-gen architectures. To sweeten the proposition even more, Intel's improved performance-per-watt to help carriers meet their sustainability targets. We're past the days when data center operators only cared about raw clock speeds. Now, every watt matters. Intel claims major strides in power efficiency on the Xeon 6 P-core chip - enough to enable up to 5:1 (or even 10:1 in some scenarios) workload consolidations for older servers. If that's realistic in practice, the TCO savings could be massive. Whether a datacenter is run by a multinational or a local cloud startup, cost and sustainability have become as critical as speed. Intel says these new Xeons can yield a 68% TCO reduction - numbers that'll catch the eye of CFOs looking to cut costs while still pushing performance boundaries. Rivals like AMD are pitching powerful, multi-core behemoths, and NVIDIA is cornering the GPU-based AI acceleration space. By focusing on CPU energy efficiency and total cost improvements, Intel positions itself as the more "balanced" approach - delivering strong AI performance without raising your electric bill off the charts. Let's be real: Intel's faced internal restructures and stiff external competition - AMD's on a roll, NVIDIA's unstoppable in AI, and the departure of CEO Pat Gelsinger (and subsequent leadership shifts) left question marks. But launching the Xeon 6 P-cores signals confidence, underscoring that, despite turmoil, Intel's forging ahead. The datacenter game is all about trust. Enterprises need to know the company behind their mission-critical CPU won't vanish or shortchange them with half-baked tech. Intel's unveiling is a loud statement. "We are intensely focused on bringing cutting-edge leadership products to market that solve our customers' greatest challenges and help drive the growth of their business," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products. If these chips live up to the marketing, it'll go a long way toward re-cementing Intel's brand as the standard-bearer. With AMD's high-core-count EPYC line and NVIDIA's AI push, Intel couldn't afford to wait. Dropping the P-cores now - complete with better performance-per-watt and advanced networking accelerators - addresses immediate market demands. The timing may be crucial to retaining large customers who might otherwise sample the competition. Will it be enough to keep AMD and NVIDIA at bay? That's the billion-dollar question. But with the Xeon 6 P-core unveiling, Intel's certainly making a strong play on the fact that performance, efficiency, and advanced features can happily coexist, letting datacenters do more with less. This might just be the stride Intel needs to remind everyone who's still the boss of the CPU world.