Intel Xeon: Sapphire Rapids stuck in traffic (Part 2)

The new Intel server processor is not finished. After delaying several times, Intel acknowledges further delays while also looking to the future. Because the Emerald Rapids update should appear within a year.

It will be even after what it already is

The traffic jam at Sapphire Rapids, reported by ComputerBase earlier this year, doesn’t seem to fix the problem. Not only was the second quarter clearly not passed, but the planned ramp-up phase after that was delayed more than originally planned, according to Intel’s own data. So there may still be difficulties in validating the whole new CPU and platform, but it is said that there are no manufacturing issues. Intel Ice Lake-SP remains the most important product of the year.

At this point we’re building more platform and product validation time, so we see Sapphire, you know the slope is later in the year than we originally expected, but demand is still very high.

[..]

One thing I didn’t mention on Sapphire, it’s there – it’s on the 7nm node so the process is perfectly healthy. In fact, Alder Lake, our customer product, has increased the number of units by 15 million units. I think we reported in the first quarter earnings, which makes that the fastest rise, you know one of the fastest growing customer products in nearly a decade.

So the process is healthy, and the capacity picture is good, but you know we have some of these other issues that we’re dealing with and customers are still working on that issue.

Sandra Rivera Intel

The bottom line is that Intel Sapphire Rapids is the next product to launch in over a year, and eventually should be 1.5 years more than the original plan. Intel was able to at least prepare some demo systems for the ISC 2022 center in Hamburg last week, which editors were also able to look at, but it will remain so for some time.

So Sandra Rivera, Head of Data Center at Intel, tried to focus on future successes and products. Since Nvidia had previously announced at the same conference that it would be using Sapphire Rapids processors in the DGX H100, that was of course an apt announcement for this series, but Intel is already looking ahead today. The first thing there is Intel Emerald Rapids, which will appear as a socket-compatible solution in the second half of 2023 and further “In terms of memory, networking, and overall performance” must submit.

It is better to look to the future

From 2024, Intel Granite Rapids and the special edition Intel Sierra Forest with only E-Cores should take over. Intel actually focused on both products at Investor Day in February.

Intel remains big when it comes to advertisements, and now the much-mentioned “implementation” should follow at the end. This has not worked in any other area except the graphics chips to a small extent as in the server sector with branches for supercomputers. Many new castles were built in the air, but the true often cited implementation has been largely held back so far.