Intel’s latest Xeon chips look to give your data center a major power boost

Even though Intel’s 5th Gen Xeon (Emerald Rapids) chips won’t be launching until the final three months of this year, we already know what to expect in 2024.

The company has lifted the wraps off its up-and-coming Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids products, and yet again, there’s a clear emphasis on artificial intelligence while tackling some of the industry’s biggest issues.

Adding to the existing Performance-core (P-core) architecture will be a new Efficient-core (E-core) architecture to help data centers in their ongoing (and frankly colossal) battle with energy efficiency.

Intel’s 2024 lineup will be even better for the environment

According to the company’s announcement, it is the provider of the best AI performance on any CPU, and the processors with P-cores (Granite Rapids) promise to give a significant boost to those looking to carry out intensive AI workloads.

Compared with the 4th Gen Xeon chips that we know today as Sapphire Rapids, Granite Rapids looks to be able to deliver 2-3x better performance for mixed AI workloads.

It’s the processors with E-cores, codenamed Sierra Forest, which are most worthy of the spotlight, though. Compared with 4th Gen hardware, Sierra Forest chips promise up to 2.4x better performance per watt. Despite each CPU being able to accommodate up to 144 cores, the vastly improved efficiency should help data centers to significantly reduce their power consumption where applicable in 1S and 2S servers.

Data centers in particular have come under scrutiny recently over their intensive consumption of numerous resources, particularly energy and water. While the solution clearly lies in a multifaceted approach, including reducing our own digital footprint, being able to carry out the same work with fewer resources is clearly an important piece of the puzzle.

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