Intel preps Broadwell- and Skylake-based Xeon E3 for 1P servers

Intel Corp. plans to release two new generations of Xeon central processing units for uniprocessor (UP) servers and workstations next year. The chips will be based on the code-named “Broadwell” and “Skylake” micro-architectures and are expected to feature improved performance, integrated graphics, power efficiency as well as memory controllers.

Intel Xeon E3-1200 v4 processors based on the “Broadwell” micro-architecture (“Broadwell-H” 4+3e design) will feature four cores with the Hyper-Threading technology, large L3 cache, GT3e graphics engine with 128MB eDRAM cache as well as dual-channel memory controller that will support up to 32GB of memory, reports CPU World. The chip will feature LGA1150packaging and will be be drop-in compatible with existing “Denlow” platforms based on the Intel C220 core-logic. It is expected that the Xeon E3 v4 chips will be available in mid-2015, about the time when the high-end code-named “Broadwell” chips for desktops are expected to hit the market.

Intel Xeon E3-1200 v5 processors based on the “Skylake” micro-architecture (and the “Skylake-S” 4+2 design) will feature four cores with the Hyper-Threading technology, large L3 cache, GT2 graphics engine as well as dual-channel DDR3/DDR4 memory controller that will support up to 64GB of memory. The chip will come in LGA1151 form-factor and will be compatible with “Greenlow” platforms based on the Intel C230 core-logic. Intel’s Xeon E3-1200 v5 CPUs are expected to become available in the second half of 2015, but it is not clear when exactly.

Like other processors based on the “Skylake” micro-architecture, the Xeon E3-1200 v5 chips will support technologies like AVX 3.2 (512-bit instructions), SHA extensions (SHA-1 and SHA-256, secure hash algorithms), MPX (memory protection extensions), ADX (multi-precision add-carry instruction extensions) and other innovations, which will be especially useful for servers.

Intel Xeon E3-1200 central processing units for single-socket servers and workstations are based on the silicon that powers enthusiast-class Core i7 and Core i5 processors, but feature ECC memory technology as well as some other functionality. Since high-end “Broadwell” and “Skylake” chips are due next year, it is not surprising that similar Xeon E3-1200 v4/v5chips with server features will also hit the market in 2015.

Both “Broadwell” and “Skylake” microprocessors are made using 14nm process technology.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

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KitGuru Says: While quad-core Xeon processors for uniprocessor servers and workstations can absolutely hit the market in 2015, it looks like chips with higher amount of cores and support for dual-processor configurations will be delayed and will be available only in 2016. Now, let’s try to guess how long will it take Intel to roll-out Xeon E7 v3 processors for mission-critical multiprocessor servers with 20+ cores made using 14nm fabrication process? Will we see them in 2017, three years after the Xeon E7 v2 “Ivytown”?

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