Intel Corp. today previewed a new Xeon server processor series that it claims can outperform silicon from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. by delivering up to 48 cores per chip.

The Cascade Lake AP family is based on a fundamentally different design than the company’s current Xeon SP line, which packs a maximum of 28 cores. Rather than being a single monolithic unit, each processor is comprised of multiple integrated circuits hardwired to one another. That’s the same approach AMD has taken with its competing Epyc line of server chips.

Intel claims that Cascade Lake AP is significantly faster. According to the company, it performed up to 3.4 times better than an AMD Epyc 7601 in internal tests based on popular processor benchmarks. The new chips were also shown to be up to 83 percent faster than the company’s current-generation Xeon SPs when running certain tasks.

The difference is even more pronounced when it comes to artificial intelligence workloads. Intel has equipped Cascade Lake AP with new AVX512 instructions, extensions to the machine language in which the chip expresses processing tasks, that are specifically optimized for neural networks. The company said that the processor enables AI models to analyze images up to 17 times faster than Xeon SPs.

Data center equipment makers will have the option to include up to two Cascade Lake AP chips in a single server for a maximum 96 cores. Such a setup can accommodate as much as 3 terabytes of high-speed memory thanks to the 12 DDR4 channels included in each processor.

Intel said that Cascade Lake AP targets the “most demanding high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and infrastructure-as-a-service workloads.” The company expects to start shipping the chips in the first half of 2019.

Intel unveiled Cascade Lake AP alongside another new family of 14-nanometer processors, the Xeon E-2100, that is in turn aimed at low-end servers and certain workstations. The series provides up to six cores with a base frequency of 3.8 gigahertz that can support 12 threats. It’s generally available today.

The introduction of the two chip families comes as Intel gears up to start mass-producing an entirely new generation of 10-nanometer chips. After repeated delays, the company this year pledged to release the processors in time for the 2019 holiday season.

Photo: Intel