3rd Gen Intel Xeon Processors Launched With Built-In AI Capabilities

Intel has officially unveiled the 3rd gen Xeon scalable processors (code-named "Ice Lake") for data centers. These processors can now be used with Intel Optane memory and storage can offer improved performance on tasks like high-performance computing, intelligent edge applications, and networking.

These processors are built using a 10-nanometer node, offering up to 40 cores. This processor can offer up to 2.65 times higher average performance when compared to a 5-year-old system. These processors can support up to 6TB of system memory per socket and can also support up to 8 channels of DDR4-3200 memory per socket, offering up to 64 lanes of PCIe Gen4 per socket.

When it comes to the AI workload, the 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor can offer 1.5 times higher performance on a mix of 20 popular AI workloads when compared to the AMD EPYC 7763 and can offer around 1.3 times higher performance when compared to the Nvidia A100 GPU.

These processors also offer a built-in crypto-acceleration, which offers improved performance in cryptographic algorithms. This is an important feature for those, who process data from millions of customers. This technology is said to offer great customer data protection without impacting performance or response time.

The 3rd gen Xeon scalable processors are based on a flexible architecture along with AI acceleration capabilities using Intel DL Boost technology. It also offers improved security using Intel Software Guard Extension (Intel SGX) and Intel Crypto Acceleration.

According to Intel, it has shipped more than 200,000 units of 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors in the first quarter of 2021. When compared to the 2nd Gen Xeon processors, the 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors offer 46% improvement on popular data center workloads.

Pricing

Intel offers multiple SKUs in the 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, starting with the four and eight-socket scalable performance options, SKUs that are optimized for the highest scalable per-core performance, cloud-optimized for VM utilization, networking or nfv optimized, media processing optimized, and more.

You can get a 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor for as little as $501 (4310 or 4309Y) for an eight or twelve core processor, and the price goes up to $13012 (8380HL 2) for the 28-core option.

3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor SKUs