When Intel's Xeon processors -- codenamed Sierra Forest -- were formally announced last year, the company even disclosed their maximum number of 288 cores, but Intel has never revealed its performance expectations. At this year's Mobile World Congress, Intel disclosed that its upcoming 144-core CPU would increase per-rack performance by 2.7X compared to its 2021 platform while consuming around 30% less power.
Intel's Xeon 'Sierra Forest' processors come with up to 288 e-cores are designed primarily for cloud data centers as well as various infrastructure workloads, such as handling 5G core networks, that can benefit from high core count and relatively low per-core power consumption.
Intel says that when compared to a dual-socket 2021 Xeon Scalable platform with a total of 48 cores (6252N), machines based on the 144-core Xeon 'Sierra Forest' processors (a total of 288 cores per dual-socket server) will offer up to 2.7X higher performance per rack for 5G core workloads while consuming less power, up to 30% when used with Intel Infrastructure Power Manager (IPM) Software while maintaining performance networks. Intel says that its choice of comparing two 24-core processors against two 24-core models is to highlight a widely deployed telco config.
Intel's IPM software seems to be as important as the 144-core Sierra Forest processor itself, as it is designed to help 5G core operators reduce CPU power usage without compromising key performance metrics by using the built-in telemetry of Intel's Xeon processors. The program is said to be compatible with existing and future Xeon-based network infrastructure, so it should work on a variety of platforms.
Without any doubt, a 2.7 times performance increase over a three-year-old platform is an impressive improvement, but we do have to take the extra cores into account.
Intel did not disclose which workloads were impacted. 5G core workloads encompass various tasks and processes crucial for the functionality of a 5G telecommunications system's core network. These workloads include managing data movement, controlling network functions, creating separate virtual networks, and ensuring that different services get the right level of quality, such as fast data speeds, low delay, and connecting many devices.
In addition to disclosing some of the advantages of its Sierra Forest processors due in 2024, Intel also said that it would launch its Granite Rapids-D CPUs in 2025. These Granite Rapids-D processors will address edge computing, networking and communications, and storage servers, among other workloads.
Edit 2/28/24 8:40am PT: Clarified Intel's test configuration.
