In an EPYC turn of events, Intel has announced that it will release a new generation of Xeon Scalable processors. These are “performance and performance-per-dollar-optimized,” which appears to be marketing speak for “lower prices due to encroaching competition.”
Intel says that its new 2nd Gen Xeon Gold processors deliver 1.36 times higher performance and 1.42 times better performance-per-dollar compared to the initial generation. This was accomplished by “adding more cores, increasing cache sizes or by boosting processor frequency.”
“The new processors — labeled with an “R,” “T” or “U” suffix — are designed for dual- and single-socket mainstream and entry-level server systems,” Intel explained. “The addition of more cores and increased cache in these processors are targeted at workloads where capacity-per-server is critical, such as virtualized clouds, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) and network function virtualization (NFV).”
The Xeon Scalable processor family is also getting two new SKUs, the Xeon Gold 6256 and 6250. These offer a base and turbo frequency of up to 3.9 and 4.5 GHz, which Intel says is the highest in the server chip industry.
“These high-frequency processors are optimized for workloads that scale with clock frequency, such as financial trading, simulation and modeling, high-performance computing, and databases,” noted Intel.
The 2nd Gen Intel Xeon lineup starts at $306 (8-core Xeon Bronze 3206R) and tops out at $3,950 (28-core Xeon Gold 6258R).