Wimpy Cores Fight Back
As MWC starts, Intel has stated that mobile operators are deploying Clearwater Forest systems. Officially called Xeon 6+ with (only) E-Cores, Clearwater is a 288-core server processor. Fabbed in the company's 18A process and using the tightly packed efficiency cores, it should deliver leading compute density and power efficiency.
High core-count server processors based on performance cores are downclocked for power/thermal reasons, offsetting their high IPC. A core purpose built for area and power efficiency can end up delivering more aggregate throughput per socket.
Historically, however, server customers have preferred not to give up so much single-thread performance. Thus, we've been skeptical of Clearwater, its predecessor Sierra Forest, and many Arm-based server processors. Clearwater, however, is supposed to have massive cache, which will suit it to memory-bound workloads, i.e., workloads where CPU performance doesn't dominate throughput. By bringing something unique to market that solves a specific problem, Clearwater may sell much better than I have expected.
As for telecom operators Intel made a big push 10+ years ago to convert them from embedded RISC architectures and bespoke ASICs/ASSPs to standard x86 CPUs supplemented by Intel-made ASICs. The company famously screwed the pooch, however. Especially around new-product introductions, the company has a way of finding backers. However, color me surprised if it captures a significant number of 6G designs. For more, click through to https://xpu.pub/2024/11/08/intel-5g/
