Intel Sapphire Rapids might be delayed even further
Intel confirms its new Xeon Scalable line of products should be expected later than originally forecasted.
Intel 7 doing great, just not for Sapphire Rapids. At BofA Securities Global Technology Conference Intel’s Sandra Rivera confirmed that the volume ramp for Sapphire Rapids CPUs is not going as planned. ComputerBase reports that this is a second delay after initial plans to launch the new Xeon series in the first quarter this year.
Sandra Rivera with Sapphire Rapids wafer, Source: Intel
The company already shipped initial SKUs to customers a few months ago and those platforms are currently being validated. Intel’s Sandra Rivera says that there are other issues not related to the process technology that are currently being worked on by Intel and their customers. The company is now currently building in more platform and product validation time, which should lead to production ramp later in the year than originally forecasted.
At this point we are building in more platform and product validation time, so we see Sapphire, you know the ramp being later in the year than what we had originally forecasted, but the demand is still very high. [..]
One thing I didn’t mention on Sapphire, it sits on – it’s on our 7-nanometer node and so the process is quite healthy. In fact Alder Lake, which is our client product ramped 15 million units. I think we announced at Q1 earnings, which makes that the fastest ramping, you know one of the fastest ramping client products in almost a decade.
So the process is healthy, the capacity picture is good, but you know we’ve got some of these other issues that we’re dealing with and customers on that match that issue still working through that.
— Sandra Rivera, Executive Vice President, General Manager, Datacenter and AI Group at Intel
On the other hand, 12th Gen Core series codenamed Alder Lake based on the same Intel 7 process technology has shipped in over 15 million units. It was the fastest volume ramp in almost a decade. What Intel here is trying to say is that the process node is healthy, however there are still issues with Sapphire Rapid’s series that need to be resolved before volume production begins.
Next-gen Xeon platform validation is important, because the successor to Sapphire Rapids codenamed Emerald Rapids will be socket compatible. This product should launch in the second half of 2023, and it will use Intel 7 process technology as well.
Intel Xeon Scalable Roadmap, Source: Intel
Source: Intel via ComputerBase
