Intel has launched its new Intel Xeon Scalable processors, providing businesses with the capability to handle compute-hungry tasks including real-time analytics, virtualized infrastructure and high-performance computing. The launch marks the greatest set of data center and network processor advancements in a decade.
“Data center and network infrastructure is undergoing massive transformations to support emerging use cases like precision medicine, artificial intelligence and agile network services paving the path to 5G,” said Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Data Center Group. “Intel Xeon Scalable processors represent the biggest data center advancement in a decade.”
The announcement follows Intel’s largest data center early ship program with more than 500,000 Intel Xeon Scalable processors already sold to leading enterprise, high-performance computing, cloud and communication services provider customers.
Customers will benefit from a dramatic performance increase of 1.65x on average over previous generation technology. With 58 world records and counting, Intel Xeon Scalable delivers industry leading performance across the broadest range of workloads.
Intel Xeon Scalable processors also provide businesses with a suite of features that deliver significant performance increases across key workloads. For example, it delivers 2.2x higher deep learning training and inference compared to the previous generation, and 113x deep learning performance3 gains compared to a 3-year-old non-optimized server system when combined with software optimizations speeding delivery of AI-fueled services, according to the company.
The processors also deliver up to 2.5x increased IPSec forwarding rate for key networking applications compared to previous generation when using Intel QuickAssist and DPDK increasing the value derived from network transformation.
The new processors also operates up to an estimated 4.2x more virtual machines (VMs) versus a 4-year-old system for rapid service deployment, server utilization, lower energy costs and space efficiency spurring enterprise data center modernization.
Another feature is the capability to provide up to a 2x FLOPs/clock improvement with Intel AVX-512 as well as integrated Intel Omni-Path Architecture ports, delivering improved compute capability, I/O flexibility and memory bandwidth to accelerate discovery and innovation.
For storage, the new processors processes up to 5x more IOPS while reducing latency by up to 70 percent versus out-of-the-box NVMe SSDs when combined with Intel Optane SSDs and Storage Performance Development Kit (SPDK), making data more accessible for advanced analytics.
The Intel Xeon Scalable processor features a new core microarchitecture, new on-die interconnects and memory controllers.
Foundation for Next-Generation Data Centers and Communications Networks
Intel also introduced Intel Select Solutions, a solutions brand aimed at simplifying and speeding the deployment of data center and network infrastructure, with initial solutions delivery on Canonical Ubuntu, Microsoft SQL 16 and VMware vSAN 6.6.
Intel Select Solutions is an expansion of the company’s deep investment in Intel Builders ecosystem collaborations and will deliver a choice of Intel-verified configurations to the market, enabling customers to speed return on investment in Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based infrastructure for user-prioritized workloads.
Designed to help customers accelerate the deployment of cloud infrastructure, transform communications networks and unleash artificial intelligence, the Intel Xeon Scalable platform is supported by 100s of ecosystem of partners, more than 480 Intel builders and more than 7,000 software vendors to drive software optimizations that take advantage of the platform.
The Intel Xeon Scalable processor has received broad support from a variety of companies, including Amazon, AT&T, BBVA, Google, Microsoft, Montefiore, Technicolor and Telefonica.