Intel Halts Shipments of Sapphire Rapids MCC Xeon CPUs Due to a Newly-Discovered Bug

Intel has reportedly halted the shipments of some Xeon Sapphire Rapids CPUs, citing a recently-discovered bug.

Tom's Hardware discovered a drop in Intel's shipments of Sapphire Rapids CPUs, and this is what Intel had to say on the details of the issue:

We became aware of an issue on a subset of 4th Generation Intel Xeon Medium Core Count Processors (SPR-MCC) that could interrupt system operation under certain conditions and are actively investigating. This issue was not observed when running commercially available software, and other 4th Generation Intel Xeon processor SKUs (i.e., XCC and HBM) have not exhibited the issue.

Out of an abundance of caution, we did temporarily pause some SPR MCC shipments while we gained confidence in the expected firmware mitigation and expect to release remaining shipments shortly

Intel Spokesperson to Tom's Hardware

According to Intel, users may encounter interruptions in certain conditions, but the company didn't reveal complete details. However, Dylan Patel from SemiAnalysis has gone to the depth of the issue, revealing that the bug is limited to the Sapphire Rapids MCC variant, and other models aren't affected. Diagnosing the issue, Patel says that the bug may occur due to disruptions in the timings of the processor, due to which the 2-socket and 4-socket variants are affected. Here is what the expert has to say:

Intel has faced another crop of design issues related to Sapphire Rapids MCC, the highest volume version of Sapphire Rapids. The 2-socket and 4-socket SKUs have paused shipments due to a timing issue since mid-June.

Intel, as always, hasn't given clarity on the situation, claiming that the issue is confined to a "subset" of the SoC. Moreover, the company has not specified a time frame to cater to the issue nor disclosed when the shipments would resume. The company, however, claims that the bug won't affect the performance of the CPUs. Intel also states that the bug wasn't present at the time of validation.

Tom's Hardware states that if the CPUs are affected due to a timing issue, it won't require much to fix it; instead, a firmware update will simply solve it. The bug's severity isn't as much that would require the company to replace existing units.

Diving into the Sapphire Rapids, Intel currently offers three different variants of the processor. The XCC model features a high core count, whereas the MCC variant affected by the bug is designed for the mainstream market. Finally, the HBM lineup consists of high HBM2e memory stack allowing the processors to be utilized for high memory-usage applications.

The bug has made Intel halt the shipments since mid-June, and no official statement is yet released by the company. We expect the company to disclose further information soon.

News Source: Tom's Hardware