Intel officially releases the first 18A data center chip for Xeon 6+ processor

[ Gearbest Technology News]On June 1, Intel officially launched the server processor Xeon 6+ (codenamed Clearwater Forest) for large core application scenarios such as cloud, operators and agent-based AI. It has been nine months since the prototype was unveiled last September.

Xeon 6+ uses a 12+3+2 three-layer chiplet design, making it Intel's first data center CPU to adopt Foveros Direct 3D packaging and mass production: the upper layer is 12 computing chiplets, using the most advanced18A process;The middle layer is 3 basic Chiplets, usingIntel 3 processcarrying the last-level cache and memory controller; the lower layer is 2 I/O Chiplets, using matureIntel 7 process. Passing between three layers of tilesFoveros Direct 3DHybrid bonding technology realizes copper-copper direct interconnection (bump pitch 9m), effectively improving the bandwidth density and energy efficiency of the internal interconnection of the chip.

Tim Wilson, director of silicon engineering for Intel's data center, said RibbonFET and PowerVia technology enable processors to achieve higher performance and energy efficiency under the same power consumption. Kira Boyko, product line director, pointed out that Xeon 6+ is mainly aimed at high-throughput, high-density scalable workloads, such as 5G core network, data plane, content distribution network, media transcoding, microservices, data analysis and storage, etc., and is especially suitable for communication infrastructure and cloud service providers.

Intel regards agent AI as the next generation AI market and predicts that by 2030, AI workloads and traditional server computing needs will account for half each. Kira Boyko introduced that in a liquid-cooled 32U rack configuration, the number of Xeon 6+ cores can reach up to 36,864, supporting large-scale agent operating environments.

Boyko emphasized that the biggest advantages of Xeon 6+ are data center modernization and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO). Taking the second-generation Xeon platform with 48 racks and 960 servers as an example, after upgrading to Xeon 6+, only 10 racks and 100 servers are needed. The saved power and space can be used to expand new services or AI infrastructure. Compared with AMD EPYC 9965, Xeon 6+ 6990E+ improves performance per thread by up to 1.3 times and energy efficiency per thread in mainstream data center workloads by up to 1.3 times.

Xeon 6+ has a built-in application energy telemetry (AET) function that can measure application energy consumption in real time, making it easier for cloud service providers to bill based on usage. This function requires no additional settings and is enabled by default. It is currently being jointly verified with some customers. In addition, Intel revealed that next year it will launch the next-generation Xeon processor “Diamond Rapids” based on the P core, using Intel's 18A-P process, doubling the memory bandwidth and supporting PCIe 6.0. More details are planned to be announced at the Hot Chips 2026 conference in late August.