Intel has revealed more details of its next-generation Xeon 6+ E-core CPU family, codenamed “Clearwater Forest,” with a focus on power and performance efficiency.
Intel has split its Xeon product line into two categories: the P line of high-performance cores and the E line for Efficiency for tasks and processes that are less performance sensitive. Intel released its first E-Core- only Xeon, codenamed “Sierra Forest,” last year.
Sierra Forest featured 144 cores while the new Clearwater Forest sports up to 288 next-gen cores. Intel eschewed symmetric hyperthreading (SMT), where two threads were executed in one core in favor of greater core count.
“We did look at whether we wanted to do SMT on E core, and opted not to, so that we could get the direct single threaded core efficiency,” said Kira Boyko, product line director, E-Core Xeon Products, in Intel’s Data Center Group.
Boyko said Clearwater Forest is about 17% faster than Sierra Forest and will continue to target the same markets that Sierra Forest has, which is cloud CSPs, microservices, scale out workloads, and then also in the networking space, in the core 5G space.
With Clearwater Forest, Intel engaged in considerable re-architecting of the physical processor into a comprehensive multi-chiplet package design. The result is engineering only Intel could do and shows that despite its problems in the C-Suite, the engineering side of the company has not suffered.
The new chips will be able to support up to 12-channel DDR5 memory with speeds of up to 8000 MT/s, a substantial increase over the 8 channels of 6400MT/s in the prior generation. In addition to that, the platform will support up to 6 UPI 2.0 links with up to 24 GT/s per lane, up to 96 PCIe Gen5.0 lanes, and up to 64 CXL 2.0 lanes.
Other features include Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) and Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) for enhanced security. On the power management side, these chips will carry Intel Application Energy Telemetry (AET) and Intel Turbo Rate Limiter. Finally, Clearwater Forest CPUs will get Advanced Vector Extensions 2 with VNNI and INT8 support.
If you have already invested in Sierra Forest servers, good news; Clearwater Forest is socket-compatible with the prior generation, so you can upgrade your servers with just a chip swap and BIOS flash. “The number one feedback we got rom OEMs was we don’t want to do a new server. We want it to be socket compatible with the servers we’ve already deployed,” said Boyko.
Clearwater Forest processors will be available in the first half of 2026.
🛸 Recommended Intelligence Resource
As UAP researchers and tech enthusiasts, we’re always seeking tools and resources to enhance our investigations and stay ahead of emerging technologies. Check out this resource that fellow researchers have found valuable.
→ PaternityLab
Leave a Reply