Alongside the launch of Intel’s first 5 GHz processor, the 6-core Core i7-8086K, Intel today also showcased a 28-core single socket machine also running at 5 GHz. The system on display scored 7334 in Cinebench R15, and Gregory Bryant (SVP and GM of Intel Client Computing Group) explicitly stated that it would be coming in Q4 this year.
No other details were provided, however for it to exist in a current platform, this new processor would likely be in LGA2066 (X299) or LGA3647 (the server socket). Intel technically already makes 28-core monolithic designs in the Intel Xeon Scalable Platform with the Xeon Platinum 8180, which is a $10k processor, which runs a lot slower than 5.0 GHz.
This sounds like an absolutely insane processor few of us will ever get to enjoy.
Hi,
The idea of 28 complex/big cores running at 5 GHz and staying within a viable thermal envelope doesn’t sound plausible to me at all (taking into account that linear increases in frequency tend to cause exponential increases in power consumption, and that Intel isn’t having much fun with their 10 nm manufacturing process).
For this reason, I strongly suspect there’s a catch. Specifically, I suspect it’s 28 simpler cores (e.g. without most of the fancy “out-of-order, speculative” shenanigans, and with worse “instructions per cycle” and worse single-thread performance).
In other words, I wouldn’t be too surprised if it’s more like Xeon Phi than Core i7.
– Brendan
Brendan,
I have no idea if this theory has any merit or not, but arguably this could be beneficial for some workloads if it’s true. It eliminates tons of complexity and transistors needed to support out of order speculative execution in favor of more explicit parallelism. This wouldn’t be for everyone, but for datacenters not only is the parallelism much appreciated, but the absence of speculation engines can be considered a security advantage post meltdown and spectre.
Assuming this were affordable, I could see having uses for it.
Hi,
I just found out that AMD are planning to release 32-core “Threadripper 2” CPUs next year at around 250W.
That news makes a “28 big cores at up to 5 GHz” CPU from Intel (with 250W or more power consumption) sound a lot more plausible as a Threadripper (and Epyc?) competitor (to see who can contribute the most to global warming).
– Brendan
This year boss probably within the next 2-3 months they said 2018H2… its based on binned 2700x dies…which already boost to 4.4-4.5 when cooled adequately we may even see a bit higher boost clocks out of Threadripper 2. Intel’s 28core basically doesn’t stand a chance against a 32core threadripper…. core for core they are fairly evenly matched in MT workloads even though ST workloads the intel chips are still slightly faster.
EPYC 2 is the one coming in 2019 on 7nm they’ll probably refresh Threadripper again on 7nm later in 2019… they said very little about it but expect 48 cores and massive cache on EPYC 2. 7nm should see the EPYC clocks uprated to 3.0Ghz from 2.2 and 4.5Ghz boost up from 3.2Ghz. There has been talk having 4x the L3 cache also which should push IPC past Intel’s.
I won’t be the least bit supprised if Threadripper 2’s top tier chip sells for under $1500… meaning you can build a rig for 2500-3k a fraction of the cost of intel’s chip alone…
Edited 2018-06-06 07:04 UTC
Of course. You need custom motherboard with 28-phase VRM cooled by huge radiator with 4 high-performance fans, 1600W power supply and expensive water cooling solution.
I’d say this monster (in its current form) can draw 700-800W at full speed.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12907/we-got-a-sneak-peak-on-intels-2…
Edited 2018-06-06 20:37 UTC
Ehh, and we were supposed to have 10GHz Netburst CPUs a decade+ ago…
Would make a decent router, I reckon.
I want this in my next laptop!
It sounds like ATI has certainly had an impact on AMD. Pushing more cores per chip has made Intel do likewise.
But when the likes of IBM has crafted 128 cores on one die, is a 28 core or 32 core design really all that impressive?