Intel Announces Xeon Max - World's First x86 Processors with HBM Memory

Intel has announced Xeon Max, a series of processors equipped with HBM2e high speed memory, and according to the company it is the world's first CPUs with HBM.
Previously these chips appeared under the codename Sapphire Rapids HBM.
The processors offer up to 56 cores with support for 112 virtual threads and have a TDP of 350W, and they are designed for high-performance server systems.Image source: IntelThe Xeon Max processors use an EMIB interface that integrates four chips with compute cores, as well as located next to the same substrate 64 GB of high-speed HBM2e memory, split into four clusters of 16 GB each.
The total bandwidth is about 1 Tbyte/s.
So there is more than 1GB of HBM2e memory per processor core.
Key features of the Xeon Max are support for PCIe 5.0 and CXL 1.1 interfaces.
HBM2e memory can be used both as additional cache and as additional RAM.
Moreover, a server with Xeon Max can be equipped with no RAM modules at all - the system will rely solely on HBM.
The company claims that Xeon Max power consumption is 68% lower than that of AMD Milan-X processors for the same performance.
The Xeon Max's support for the new AMX instructions speeds up AI-related tasks and provides an eight-fold increase in peak performance over AVX-512 instructions in INT8 and INT32 operations.
Intel says the Xeon Max is up to five times faster in some types of operations compared to the Intel Xeon 8380 or AMD EPYC 7773X (Milan-X with 3D V-Cache technology).
The presentation also compares the Xeon Max to the AMD EPYC 7763, against which the new Intel product shows up to 3.6 times better performance.
Compared to the NVIDIA A100 server computing gas pedal in the MLPerf DeepCAM test, which deals with calculations that accelerate and augment simulations on supercomputers using AI, Xeon Max is up to 1.2 times faster than the competitor.
The Xeon Max series of server processors will hit the market in January 2023.
Key competitors to Xeon Max will be AMD's new EPYC Genoa processors.
Their announcement is expected tomorrow, November 10.
According to rumors, these processors will be available as solutions equipped with HBM memory.

Intel Sapphire Rapids server processors will not come out as planned due to \"side problems\"

The transition to mass production of 4th generation Xeon Scalable server processors (Sapphire Rapids) will occur later than expected.
This was announced at the BofA Securities Global Technology Conference by Sandra Rivera, head of the server division.
In fact, it is the second postponement of the release of these chips.
Previously, the company had intended to release the processors in the first quarter of this year.Image source: IntelInternet has previously reported that during the first quarter, it shipped samples of 4th generation Intel Xeon Scalable codename Sapphire Rapids to some customers.
The chips are currently being tested by the company's partners.
According to Rivera, Intel needs more time to develop new platforms for Sapphire Rapids and validate them.
Therefore, mass shipments of the processors, although they will start this year, but later than planned.
\"We need more time to develop and test new platforms, so the mass production release of Sapphire Rapids is expected later than originally expected.
However, we are still seeing strong demand for these chips.
I would also like to add that our Intel 7 processor, on which Sapphire Rapids are built, feels great.
I would like to point out that the same process is used in our Alder Lake consumer chips.
We've ramped up production to 15 million units.
We already mentioned in our Q1 report that it's the fastest ramp-up in consumer processor production in the last ten years.
The process technology is doing very well, and we're projecting a good chip volume picture, but there are some side issues that need to be addressed with our customers,\" commented Sandra Rivera.
It is very important for Intel to make sure that all components of the Sapphire Rapids platform pass the necessary testing, as the successors to the Emerald Rapids codename processors will also be compatible with the platform.
These chips are expected in the second half of 2023 and will also use the Intel 7 (10nm) process technology.