Intel Sapphire Rapids-SP Next-Gen Xeon CPU SKUs Leak Out – Up To 56 Cores, 105 MB Cache & 350W TDPs

Several Intel Sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon CPUs have leaked out along with their specific core, cache, and TDP configurations. The leak comes from Yuuki_Ans who has acquired the spec sheet along with pictures of early engineering boards featuring the next-gen Xeon SOCs.

There are at least 10 Intel sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon SKUs listed within the specs sheet, all of which feature different core counts, cache sizes, and TDPs. The Sapphire Rapids-SP lineup will be based on the 'Intel 7' process node and feature Golden Cove core architecture to power up to 56 cores. Following are the leaked configurations:

Out of all these SKUs, clock speeds for the 24 core, 28 core, and 48 core Intel Sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon CPUs are listed. These are early samples so expect them to be far lower than what the retail specs are going to offer. The 28 core and 48 core models are rated at 1.3 GHz while the 24 core is rated at 1.5 GHz. These are also base clocks and I personally expect them to peak out at around 3.5-4.0 GHz. The rest of the SKUs line in with the leaked specifications from a while back which can be read in detail below.

Intel Sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon CPU Evaluation Platform (Image Source: Yuuki_Ans):

The Sapphire Rapids-SP family will be replacing the Ice Lake-SP family and will go all on board with the 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process node that will be making its formal debut later this year in the Alder Lake consumer family. From what we know so far, Intel's Sapphire Rapids-SP lineup is expected to utilize the Golden Cove architecture & will be based on the 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process node.

The Sapphire Rapids lineup will make use of 8 channel DDR5 memory with speeds of up to 4800 Mbps & support PCIe Gen 5.0 on the Eagle Stream platform. The Eagle Stream platform will also introduce the LGA 4677 socket which will be replacing the LGA 4189 socket for Intel's upcoming Cedar Island & Whitley platform which would house Cooper Lake-SP and Ice Lake-SP processors, respectively. The Intel Sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon CPUs will also come with CXL 1.1 interconnect that will mark a huge milestone for the blue team in the server segment.

Coming to the configurations, the top part is started to feature 56 cores with a TDP of 350W. What is interesting about this configuration is that it is listed as a low-bin split variant which means that it will be using a tile or MCM design. The Sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon CPU will be composed of a 4-tile layout with each tile featuring 14 cores each.

It looks like AMD will still hold the upper hand in the number of cores & threads offered per CPU with their Genoa chips pushing for up to 96 cores whereas Intel Xeon chips would max out at 56 cores if they don't plan on making SKUs with a higher number of tiles. Intel will have a wider and more expandable platform that can support up to 8 CPUs at once so unless Genoa offers more than 2P (dual-socket) configurations, Intel will have the lead in the most number of cores per rack with an 8S rack packing up to 448 cores and 896 threads.

The Intel Saphhire Rapids CPUs will contain 4 HBM2 stacks with a maximum memory of 64 GB (16GB each). The total bandwidth from these stacks will be 1 TB/s. According to leaked details from AdoredTV, HBM2 and GDDR5 will be able to work together in flat, caching/2LM, and hybrid modes. The presence of memory so near to the die would do absolute wonders for certain workloads that require huge data sets and will basically act as an L4 cache.

AMD has been taking away quite a few wins from Intel as seen in the recent Top500 charts from ISC '21. Intel would really have to up their game in the next couple of years to fight back the AMD EPYC threat. Intel is expected to launch Sapphire Rapids-SP in 2022 followed by HBM variants that are expected to launch around 2023.