Tech News: Intel Launches First Xeon 6 Processor, Up to 144 E-Cores, 66% Efficiency Boost!

On June 6th, 2024, Intel made a significant stride in the world of processors with the launch of its first-ever Xeon 6 processor featuring efficiency cores, codenamed Sierra Forest. This new product promises a dual enhancement of performance and efficiency for high-density and horizontally scalable workloads.

As the inaugural product featuring efficiency cores in the Xeon 6 lineup, the Xeon 6700E series boasts an impressive 144 E-cores (144 threads), delivering up to 1.4 times the memory bandwidth, enabling processing of larger datasets in a single operation. Compared to the fifth-generation Intel Xeon processors, the I/O bandwidth has been increased by 1.1 times, providing a faster and more efficient data transfer system for enhanced data throughput.

Performance-wise, the Xeon 6 efficiency core processors outshine the second-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors in various aspects. Networking and microservice performance sees an increase of up to 2.6 times, while media transcoding performance per watt sees a maximum improvement of 2.6 times. Data service performance sees a maximum improvement of 2.7 times, networking performance sees a maximum improvement of 3.4 times, and multimedia transcoding performance sees a maximum improvement of 4.2 times.

The Intel Xeon 6 efficiency core processors are optimized for network and edge workloads. Test results based on the Intel Ethernet 800 series indicate that compared to the second-generation Intel Xeon processors, the Xeon 6 efficiency core processors can deliver up to 2.7 times the 5G UPI (User Plane Functionality) performance per watt and up to 3.5 times the next-generation firewall performance per watt. This enhancement contributes to overall computing efficiency and supports computing capabilities from 5G networks and edge to cloud infrastructures.

Compared to the fifth-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, the Xeon 6 efficiency core processors exhibit a 20%-66% improvement in efficiency across a wide range of workloads, while maintaining comparable performance.

According to Intel's roadmap, the Intel Xeon 6 efficiency core series under the codename Sierra Forest includes not only the already launched Xeon 6700E series but also the Xeon 6900E series. The Xeon 6 performance core (P-core) series under the codename Sierra Forest includes: Xeon 6900P, Xeon 6700P, Xeon 6500P, and Xeon 6300P.

The efficiency core processors are specifically optimized for tasks requiring high core density and scalability, while the performance core processors are optimized for high performance required by compute-intensive and AI workloads. The architectures are compatible, sharing software stacks and an open ecosystem of software and hardware vendors, providing versatility, scalability, and flexibility for various optimized products, including improvements for DDR5 (Double Data Rate), PCIe 5 (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), UPI (Ultra Path Interconnect), and CXL (Compute Express Link) generations.

In the third quarter of this year, the Xeon 6 performance core processor - the Xeon 6900P series, will be launched, boasting a maximum of 128 P-cores (256 threads), supporting multi-tasking parallel processing, 12 memory channels, and the latest DDR5 and MCR DIMM memory modules for increased data transfer bandwidth. Additionally, Intel AMX, with its support for INT8, BF16, and FP16 data formats, further enhances AI inference performance.

Compared to the fifth-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, the Xeon 6900P series processors offer twice the AI inference performance, 2.3 times the scientific computing performance, and double the general computing performance.

Furthermore, compared to the fifth-generation Intel Xeon processors, the Xeon 6900P series products boast a staggering 1.8 times increase in inter-socket bandwidth. This enables faster and more efficient communication between system components, significantly boosting performance for demanding workloads.

In the first quarter of 2025, Intel will also launch an enhanced version of the Xeon 6700E series - the Xeon 6900E series, which will package two 144 E-core compute modules, resulting in a total of 288 E-cores (288 threads).

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