Intel Scalable

The release of the Intel Xeon Scalable Processor (Skylake) and the 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processor (Cascade Lake) brought about many new technologies that made it the most significant change to Xeon’s since the release of Haswell over five years ago. The most significant change was to the methodology used to connect the multiple cores and cache within the processor. The Xeon Scalable Processor replaces the traditional ring interconnect that was used on previous generations of Xeon with a mesh interconnect, a proven technology used on the high-performance Intel Xeon Phi processor. The mesh interconnect provides a more efficient method of managing traffic between the processor cores and reduces latency which dramatically improves performance.

Other technical improvements shared by both generations of Xeon Scalable Processor included the addition on VMB and Intel Quick Assist Technology. VMB (Intel’s Volume Management Device) resolves many of the previous issues of using NVMe in RAID configurations by allowing support for hot swap, LED error notification, and the ability to use multiple drives in a RAID configuration. Intel Quick Assist Technology is a purpose built IC integrated into the Purley motherboard chipset that handles encryption, compression, and decompression of files. These CPU intensive functions are offloaded from the processor, freeing up the CPUs resources to manage other more critical tasks.

The performance gains benefited all levels of customers who saw a drastic leap in performance and capability across a wide range of workloads. With the 2nd Generation Xeon Scalable Processor, which is backward compatible to Purley platforms with a BIOS update, customers get higher frequencies and or more cores at the same price points as their Skylake counterpart. In addition to performance gains, the 2nd Generation Xeon Scalable also brings additional benefits including support for Intel Optane DC Memory, support for faster DDR4 DRAM, new AVX-512 VNNI instructions for emerging AI applications, and hardware support to protect against Spectre and Meltdown mitigations.

These technological improvements bring greater overall platform performance to the entire ecosystem that benefits general purpose users, and are optimized for emerging specialized markets such as AI.

Key Benefits of the Intel 2nd Generation Xeon Scalable Processor

Higher Core Performance: Up to 56 Cores (9200 Series) and up to 28 cores (8200 Series), delivering high-performance and scalability for compute intensive workloads across compute, storage, and network usages.

Greater memory Bandwidth/Capacity: Support for Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory, supporting up to 36TB of system memory capacity when combined with traditional DRAM. Support for up to 6 memory channels and up to 4TB of DDR4 memory per socket with speeds up to 2933 MT/s (1 DPC).

Expanded I/O: 48 lanes of PCIe 3.0 bandwidth and throughput for demanding I/O intensive workloads

Intel Deep Learning Boost with VNNI: New Intel Deep Learning Boost with Vector Neural Network Instruction (VNNI) brings enhanced artificial intelligence, inference performance, with up to 30X performance improvement over the previous generation. Intel 2nd Generation Xeon Scalable processors help deliver AI readiness across the data center,

Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (Intel AVX-512): With double the FLOPS per clock cycle compared to previous generation Intel AVX2, Intel AVX-512 boost performance and throughput for the most demanding computational applications such as modeling, simulation, data analytics, machine learning, data compression, virtualization, and digital content creation.

Integrated Intel Quick Assist Technology: Chipset based hardware acceleration for growing compression and cryptographic workloads for greater efficiency, while delivering enhanced data transport and protection across server, storage, and network infrastructure.

Intel VMB (Volume Management Device): Resolves many of the previous issues of using NVMe in RAID configurations by allowing support for hot swap, LED error notification, and the ability to use multiple drives in a RAID configuration.

Intel Ultra Path Interconnect (Intel UPI): Four Intel UPI (9200 Series) and up to three UPI (8200 Series) channels increase scalability of the platform to as many as two sockets (9200 series) and up to eight sockets (8200 Series). Intel UPI offers the perfect balance between improved throughput and energy efficiency.

2nd Generation (Cascade Lake) Xeon Scalable Processor (Skylake)
Family Model L3 Cache Cores Threads Frequency Model L3 Cache Cores Threads Frequency
Platinum 8280 38.5 28 56 2.7 8180 38.5 28 56 2.5
Platinum 8276 38.5 28 56 2.2 8176 38.5 28 56 2.1
Platinum 8270 35.75 26 52 2.7 8170 35.75 26 54 2.1
Platinum 8268 35.75 24 48 2.9 8168 33 24 48 2.7
Platinum 8260 35.7 24 48 2.4 8160 33 24 48 2.1
Platinum 8256 16.5 4 8 3.8 8156 16.5 4 8 3.6
Platinum 8253 35.7 16 32 2.2 8153 22 16 32 2
Gold 6254 24.75 18 36 3.1 6154 24.75 18 36 3
Gold 6252 35.75 24 48 2.1 6152 30.25 22 44 2.1
Gold 6248 27.5 20 40 2.5 6148 27.5 20 40 2.4
Gold 6244 24.75 8 16 3.6 6144 24.75 8 16 3.5
Gold 6242 22 16 32 2.8 6142 22 16 32 2.6
Gold 6240 24.75 18 36 2.6 6140 24.75 18 36 2.3
Gold 6238 30.25 22 44 2.1 6138 27.5 20 40 2
Gold 6234 24.75 8 16 3.3 6134 24.75 8 16 3.2
Gold 6230 27.5 20 40 2.1 6130 22 16 32 2.1
Gold 6226 19.25 12 24 2.8 6126 19.25 12 24 2.6
Gold 5222 16.5 4 8 3.8 5122 16.5 4 8 3.6
Gold 5220 24.75 18 36 2.2 5120 19.25 14 28 2.2
Gold 5218 22 16 32 2.3 5118 16.5 12 24 2.3
Gold 5217 16.5 8 16 3 5117 19.25 14 28 2
Gold 5215 16.5 10 20 2.5 5115 13.75 10 20 2.4
Silver 4216 16.5 16 32 2.3 4116 16.5 12 24 2.1
Silver 4214 16.5 12 24 2.2 4114 13.75 10 20 2.2
Silver 4210 13.75 10 20 2.2 4110 11 8 16 2.1
Silver 4208 11 8 16 2.1 4108 11 8 16 1.8
Bronze 3204 8.25 6 6 1.9 3104 8.25 6 6 1.7