Intel Discontinues Two Cascade Lake-SP CPUs

After a short 7-month run, Intel has retired its Xeon Gold 6222 and Xeon Gold 6262 CPUs. The processors belong to Intel's second-generation Xeon Scalable family, which is based on the latest Cascade Lake microarchitecture.

Strange as it may seem, the Xeon Gold 6222 and Xeon Gold 6262 weren't part of Intel's original Cascade Lake-SP announcement, which boasts over 50 different SKUs. Furthermore, the duo never appeared in Intel's ARK database either, so their specifications are a mystery. It makes you wonder how available the two chips ever were.  

Intel states that customers can still order the Xeon Gold 6222 and Xeon Gold 6262 before December 27, 2019, and last shipments go out on November 6, 2020.

However, the Xeon Gold 6222 and 6262 shouldn't be missed too much, since Intel is replacing them with the Xeon Gold 6222V and 6262V.

Intel Xeon Gold 6222V and 6262V Specs

The 'V' suffix denotes virtual machine density value, Intel's way of saying more bang for your buck. Xeon parts marked with 'V' are supposed to offer more cores at the same price point as other chips in the same tier. However, this comes at the cost of lower clock speeds and memory support.

For example, the Xeon Gold 6222V and Xeon Gold 6262V sport 1.8 GHz and 1.9 GHz base clocks, respectively and a 3.6 GHz boost clock. Intel's regular Xeon Gold offerings start with 2.1 GHz base clock with boost clocks up to 3.9 GHz. While the typical Cascade Lake-SP chip comes with native support for DDR4-2933 RAM, the Xeon Gold 6222V and Xeon Gold 6262V only supports DDR4-2400.