Intel’s Clearwater series is taking shape, with the brand releasing a few details at the Hot Chips conference. Clearly, we’re dealing with a series designed for data centers, since these CPUs feature a very large number of cores. Thanks to the use of a new architecture, performance is expected to improve significantly, while memory is not to be outdone either.
Clearwater Forest: big CPUs with up to 288 cores!
As far as the process is concerned, we’ve known for some time that Clearwater will be using Intel’s 18A process. The latter features a new type of transistor, replacing FinFET with RibbonFET. In addition, the largest model will feature a total of twelve chiplets containing the cores (which benefit from the 18A process). Each chip will contain up to 24 cores, for a total of 288 cores. Three further dies will contain the cache memory (engraved in Intel 3), while the final step is taken by two I/O dies engraved in Intel 7. With this, we can count on a new architecture within E-Core with Darkmont. This promises a massive 17% gain in IPC over the previous architecture. To achieve this, the company has improved the CPU front-end by reworking pipelines and out-of-order engines. Bandwidth has been improved in the cache area. The latter now spins at 400 GB/s, twice as fast as the current-generation Sierra Forest. The memory part is also impressive, with each CPU managing up to twelve memory channels. Memory support goes up to DDR5 at 8000 MT/s, while bandwidth reaches 1.3 TB/s. As for maximum capacity, we’re talking about 3TB of memory on systems integrating two of these processors. With Clearwater Forest, Intel hopes to regain market share in the server sector. AMD is imposing stiff competition with its Epyc range, to such an extent that we are gradually reaching parity between the two competitors. But let’s not forget either that these processors, due in 2026, will face stiff competition. Between AMD and other models exploiting ARM architectures, the blues are going to have to fight hard to convince!