Intel "Granite Rapids" Xeon Processor Wafer Revealed

Check out the latest images of an Intel "Granite Rapids" Xeon processor wafer, shared by Andreas Schilling from HardwareLuxx.de. This marks Intel's initial commercial silicon produced on the new Intel 3 foundry node. The Intel 3 node is anticipated to be the company's last silicon fabrication node to utilize FinFET technology before transitioning to Nanosheets with the upcoming Intel 20A generation. Intel 3 boasts transistor densities and performance that rival TSMC N3 series and Samsung 3GA series nodes.

The wafer features square 30-core tiles, with each "Granite Rapids-XCC" processor composed of two tiles. These processors can have CPU core counts up to 56-core/112-threads, with two cores per tile left unused for harvesting purposes. Each of the 30 cores on the tile is a "Redwood Cove" P-core. In contrast, the current "Emerald Rapids" Xeon processor utilizes "Raptor Cove" cores and is manufactured on the Intel 7 foundry node.

Intel's strategy includes addressing the CPU core-count gap with AMD EPYC, particularly against the rumored 128-core/256-thread EPYC "Turin" Zen 5 processors. This will be achieved by incorporating various on-silicon fixed-function accelerators to enhance the performance of common server workloads. The "Redwood Cove" core is expected to be Intel's first IA core to feature AVX10 and APX instructions.