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Intel launches Xeon 6+ Clearwater Forest with up to 288 E-cores
Intel Xeon 6+ brings 288 E-cores to the existing Xeon 6900 platform
First Intel 18A data center CPU launches June 1.
Intel has launched its Xeon 6+ processor series, also known as Clearwater Forest. This is Intel’s first data center CPU built with compute tiles on Intel 18A, and the new family focuses on high core density rather than P-core performance.
The top SKU is the Xeon 6990E+, a 288-core processor based on next-gen Darkmont E-cores. Intel lists two power versions of this model, one at 450W and another at 330W. Both keep the same 288-core count, 576MB of L3 cache, 12-channel DDR5-8000 support and 96 PCIe Gen5 lanes.
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The platform uses 12 compute chiplets on Intel 18A, three base chiplets on Intel 3 and two I/O chiplets on Intel 7. Intel also uses Foveros Direct 3D and EMIB packaging for the design. The company says Clearwater Forest remains compatible with Xeon 69xxE/P platforms, which means existing platform support carries over for server makers.
Source: Intel
Intel is launching six configurations across four SKUs. The lineup starts at 144 cores with the Xeon 6960E+ and goes up to 288 cores with the Xeon 6990E+. All models support 1-socket and 2-socket systems, 12 memory channels, DDR5-8000, six UPI links and Intel AET.
Slides compare the Xeon 6990E+ against AMD EPYC 9965. The company claims up to 1.3x higher performance per watt at 40% CPU utilization, and also claims 1.3x higher average performance per thread and performance per thread per watt across selected workloads. These are Intel-provided figures, so independent testing will be needed for the full comparison.
Against the previous Xeon 6780E, Intel claims 2.26x higher average performance and 1.55x higher average performance per watt for the Xeon 6990E+. The company also lists up to 9:1 server consolidation versus 2nd Gen Xeon systems, which is aimed at customers replacing older dense server deployments.
Source: Intel
Clearwater Forest also introduces Intel Application Energy Telemetry, or Intel AET. The feature reports per-application energy usage through Intel Platform Monitoring Technology and uses application tagging with Intel Resource Director Technology. Intel is presenting it as a way for data centers to track energy use by workload rather than only at the system level.
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The processors are aimed at network infrastructure, media, web and microservices, storage and database workloads. Intel previously disclosed the Clearwater Forest tile layout and Xeon 6+ platform details earlier this year, but this is now the launch of the product family.
Source: Intel