Intel to Fire Back at AMD's EPYC Rome With Cascade Lake Xeon Refresh: Report

According to a report from Dylan Martin at CRN, Intel is poised to launch a new lineup of Cascade Lake Xeon refresh processors to fire back at AMD's EPYC Rome. 

The report cites numerous anonymous sources that informed the trustworthy publication of the new Intel lineup that is purportedly slated for a February 23, 2020 launch. Further examination indicates public-facing evidence of the new chips in Penguin Computing's server configurator and in Intel's own recent microcode update documents.  

The new processors have been hinted at in prior leaks, and Intel's response makes sense as it looks to protect its market share from the resurgent AMD's EPYC Rome processors that hold both the process node and core count advantage. The CRN report also cites industry sources that say the ramp-up for the refreshed Cascade Lake lineup could have contributed to recent Xeon shortages as the company shifted production capacity to the new chips. 

*Data in table is unconfirmed, compiled from CRN report. 

The purported refresh lineup (with an "R" suffix) brings 28-core models to the Xeon Gold lineup that previously topped out at 24 cores. The list of processors also includes a Xeon Bronze model that brings that family of chips up to eight cores (from six), and six new Silver models. A cursory examination reveals slightly higher boost frequencies with the new chips, as expected of a typical refresh generation, and several models come with more cores than their prior-gen counterparts.  

The refreshed lineup, which is purportedly an iterative 14nm update to the existing Xeon Scalable architecture, should bring along more competitive price points for Intel's data center lineup. The latest news comes on the heels of Intel's recent adjustments to its Xeon product stack that, in sum, equates to lower pricing for models that support 4.5TB of memory capacity. That addressed a shortcoming in Intel's feature set compared to AMD's EPYC processors, which support 4TB of maximum memory capacity with no additional charge. 

*chart above outlines Intel's official Cascade Lake Xeon lineup

We pinged Intel for comment, but the company responded that it doesn't comment on rumors. That means we'll have to wait for an official launch for more information on the final specifications and pricing of the chips, but given the public-facing info, it appears we won't have to wait too long. 

In either case, the purported lineup makes plenty of sense and appears to plug some noticeable competitive performance gaps in Intel's lineup against AMD's EPYC Rome processors. 

As always, pricing will tell the final tale.