Intel coming to Granite Rapids/Sierra Forest next year

After a long delay, Intel finally released its fourth generation of scalable to powerful processors earlier this year, codenamed Sapphire Rapids, upgraded to Intel 7 process, 60 cores, 8 lanes of DDR5-4800 memory and 80 PCIe 5.0 lanes.

This seems a bit underwhelming against the AMD Zen4 EYPC 9004 series with its 5nm process, 96 cores, 12 lanes of DDR and 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes, and the latter has the 768MB 3D cache-boosted EYPC 9004X series waiting in the wings.

Next, Intel's roadmap is quite aggressive: an upgraded version of Emerald Rapids will be launched this year with the same process interface, and next year it will be Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest, two sets of platforms using high performance large cores and low power small cores respectively, all manufactured on Intel 3.

YuuKi_AnS, a long-time follower of Intel's Xeon platform, has come up with another great report on the "Avenue City" reference motherboard for the two new platforms.

The motherboard measures 20 x 16.7 inches (508 x 424 mm), a full 1.14 times larger than a standard ATX desktop motherboard, and is designed with up to 20 layers of circuit boards.

This is because it has to accommodate two massive LGA7529 sockets, with over 60% more pins than the current LGA4677, which is already comparable in length to a memory stick.

LGA7529, LGA4677 interface size comparison

LGA7529

Granite Rapids has increased the number of cores from the current 60 to 128, outstripping the current AMD Zen4 EYPC, but Zen5 should be out by then.

Thermal design power is supported up to 500W, which doesn't mean the processor will necessarily be that powerful, but it's close.

DDR5 memory channels have been increased from 8 to 12, finally catching up with AMD EYPC, with a default frequency of 6400MHz, and can go up to 8000MHz.

PCIe 5.0 lanes have been increased to 96, divided into 6 groups.

Intel also specifically warns that anti-static gloves must be worn when installing the new processors, and that you must not touch the edges of the Crazy Turn to avoid oxidation or the ingress of foreign objects.

Sierra Forest shares the same interface and platform, but the specs will obviously be very different, with core numbers said to be a staggering 334!