Sapphire Rapids is a codename for Intel's server (fourth generation Xeon Scalable) and workstation (Xeon W-2400/2500 and Xeon W-3400/3500) processors based on the Golden Cove microarchitecture and produced using Intel 7. It features up to 60 cores and an array of accelerators, and it is the first generation of Intel server and workstation processors to use a chiplet design.

Sapphire Rapids is part of the Eagle Stream server platform. In addition, it powers Aurora, an exascale supercomputer in the United States, at Argonne National Laboratory.

History Sapphire Rapids has been a long-standing Intel project along Alder Lake in development for over five years and has been subjected to many delays. It was first announced by Intel at their Investor Meeting in May 2019 with the intention of Sapphire Rapids succeeding Ice Lake and Cooper Lake in 2021. Intel again announced details on Sapphire Rapids in their August 2021 Architecture Day presentation with no mention of a launch date.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger tacitly blamed the previous Intel leadership as a reason for Sapphire Rapids' many delays. One industry analyst firm claimed that Intel was having problems with yields from its Intel 7 node with yields of 50–60% on higher core-count silicon. Sapphire Rapids was originally scheduled for a launch in the first half of 2022. It was later scheduled for release in Q4 2022 but was again delayed to early 2023. The specific announcement date of January 10, 2023 was not revealed by Intel until November 2022.

The server processor lineup was released on January 10, 2023, and the workstation processor lineup was released on February 15, 2023. Those processors were available for shipping on March 14 of that year. Intel shipped more than million of this generation Xeon processors in 2023.Intel Corporation, Intel Unveils Future-Generation Xeon with Robust Performance and Efficiency Architectures

Features CPU

Up to 60 Golden Cove CPU cores per package Up to 15 cores per tile, a 60 core Xeon Platinum 8490H uses 4 dies populated with 15 cores to have 60 cores in total AVX512-FP16 TSX Suspend Load Address Tracking (TSXLDTRK) Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) Trust Domain Extensions (TDX), a collection of technologies to help deploy hardware-isolated virtual machines (VMs) called trust domains (TDs) User Interrupts (UINTR), a new architectural feature allowing interrupts to be delivered to user-mode software without kernel involvement. Indirect branch tracking and CET shadow stack.

Accelerators In-Field Scan (IFS), a technology that allows for testing the processor for potential hardware faults without taking it completely offline Data Streaming Accelerator (DSA), an ASIC that allows for speeding up data copy and transformation between different kinds of storage QuickAssist Technology (QAT), an ASIC that allows for improved performance of compression and encryption tasks Dynamic Load Balancer (DLB), an ASIC that allows for offloading tasks of load balancing, packet prioritization and queue management In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (IAA), an ASIC that allows accelerating in-memory databases and big data analytics

Not all accelerators are available in all processor models. Some accelerators are available under the Intel On Demand program, also known as Software Defined Silicon (SDSi), where a license is required to activate a given accelerator that is physically present in the processor. The license can be obtained as a one-time purchase or as a paid subscription. Activating the license requires support in the operating system. A driver with the necessary support was added in Linux kernel version 6.2.

I/O PCI Express 5.0 Direct Media Interface 4.0 8-channel DDR5 ECC memory support up to DDR5-4800, up to 2 DIMMs per channel On-package High Bandwidth Memory 2.0e memory as L4 cache on Xeon Max models Compute Express Link 1.1

Die configurations

Sapphire Rapids come in two varieties: the low-core-count variety uses a single die (MCC), and the high-core-count variety uses multiple dies on a single package (XCC).

XCC multi-die configuration Multi-chiplet chip with four tiles linked by 2.5D Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridges. Each tile is a 400mm2 system on a chip, providing both compute cores and I/O. Each tile contains 15 Golden Cove cores, and a single UPI link Each tile's memory controller provides two channels of DDR5 ECC supporting 4 DIMMs (2 per channel) and 1 TB of memory with a maximum of 8 channels, 16 DIMMs, and 4 TB memory across 4 tiles A tile provides up to 32 PCIe 5.0 lanes, but one of the eight PCIe controllers of a CPU is usually reserved for DMI, resulting in a maximum of 112 non-chipset lanes. This maximum is only reached in the W-3400 series processors, while the server processors have 80 (20 per tile).

List of Sapphire Rapids processors

Sapphire Rapids-HBM (High Bandwidth Memory/Xeon Max Series) Xeon Max processors contain 64 GB of High Bandwidth Memory. ModelnumberCores(threads)BaseclockTurbo BoostSmartcacheTDPMaxi-mumscala-bilityRegisteredDDR5w. ECCsupportUPIlinksReleaseMSRP(USD)AllcoreSinglecore948056 (112)1.9 GHz2.6 GHz3.5 GHz112.5 MB350 W2S4800 MT/s4$12980947052 (104)2.0 GHz2.7 GHz105.0 MB$11590946848 (96)2.1 GHz2.6 GHz$9900946040 (80)2.2 GHz2.7 GHz97.5 MB3$8750946232 (64)2.7 GHz3.1 GHz75.0 MB$7995

Sapphire Rapids-SP (Scalable Performance) With its maximum of 60 cores, Sapphire Rapids-SP competes with AMD's Epyc 8004/9004 Genoa with up to 96 cores and Bergamo with up to 128 cores. Sapphire Rapids Xeon server processors are scalable from single-socket configurations up to 8 socket configurations.

Suffixes to denote:

+: Includes 1 of each of the four accelerators: DSA, IAA, QAT, DLB H: Database and analytics workloads, supports 4S (Xeon Gold) and/or 8S (Xeon Platinum) configurations and includes all of the accelerators M: Media transcode workloads N: Network/5G/Edge workloads (High TPT/Low Latency), some are uniprocessor P: Cloud and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) workloads Q: Liquid cooling S: Storage & Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) workloads T: Long-life use/High thermal case U: Uniprocessor (some workload-specific SKUs may also be uniprocessor) V: Optimized for cloud and software as a service (SaaS) workloads, some are uniprocessor Y: Speed Select Technology-Performance Profile (SST-PP) enabled (some workload-specific SKUs may also support SST-PP) Y+: Speed Select Technology-Performance Profile (SST-PP) enabled and includes 1 of each of the accelerators. ModelnumberCores(threads)BaseclockTurbo BoostSmartcacheTDPMaxi-mumscala-bilityRegisteredDDR5w. ECCsupportUPIlinksReleaseMSRP(USD)AllcoreSinglecoreXeon Platinum (8400)8490H60 (120)1.9 GHz2.9 GHz3.5 GHz112.5 MB350 W8S4800 MT/s4$170008488C48 (96)2.4 GHz3.2 GHz3.8 GHz105.0 MB385 W2S8487C56 (112)1.9 GHz3.8 GHz350 W8481C2.0 GHz2.9 GHz8480+3.0 GHz4$107108480C8478C48 (96)2.2 GHz?8475B2.7 GHz3.2 GHz97.5 MB8474C2.1 GHz8473C52 (104)2.9 GHz105.0 MB8471N1.8 GHz2.8 GHz3.6 GHz97.5 MB300 W1S4$51718470Q2.1 GHz3.2 GHz3.8 GHz105.0 MB350 W2S$94108470N1.7 GHz2.7 GHz3.6 GHz97.5 MB300 W$952084702.0 GHz3.0 GHz3.8 GHz105.0 MB350 W$93598469C48 (96)2.6 GHz3.1 GHz97.5 MB8468V2.4 GHz2.9 GHz330 W3$71218468H2.1 GHz3.0 GHz105.0 MB8S4$1392384683.1 GHz350 W2S$72148465C52 (104)2.9 GHz8462Y+32 (64)2.8 GHz3.6 GHz4.1 GHz60.0 MB300 W3$59458461V48 (96)2.2 GHz2.8 GHz3.7 GHz97.5 MB1S0$44918460Y+40 (80)2.0 GHz105.0 MB2S4$55588460H2.2 GHz3.1 GHz3.8 GHz330 W8S$107108458P44 (88)2.7 GHz3.2 GHz82.5 MB350 W2S3$71218454H32 (64)2.1 GHz2.7 GHz3.4 GHz270 W8S4$65408452Y36 (72)2.0 GHz2.8 GHz3.2 GHz67.5 MB300 W2S$39958450H28 (56)2.6 GHz3.5 GHz75.0 MB250 W8S$47088444H16 (32)2.9 GHz3.2 GHz4.0 GHz45.0 MB270 W$42348432C40 (80)3.8 GHz350 W2S8422C36 (72)Xeon Gold (5400 and 6400)6462C32 (64)3.3 GHz60.0 MB2S4800 MT/s6458Q3.1 GHz4.0 GHz350 W3$64166456C2.9 GHz3.3 GHz4.1 GHz280 W6454S2.2 GHz2.8 GHz3.4 GHz270 W4$31576448Y2.1 GHz3.0 GHz4.1 GHz225 W3$35836448H2.4 GHz3.2 GHz250 W4S$36586444Y16 (32)3.6 GHz4.0 GHz45.0 MB270 W2S$36226442Y24 (48)2.6 GHz3.3 GHz4.0 GHz60.0 MB225 W$28786438Y+32 (64)2.0 GHz2.8 GHz205 W$31416438N2.7 GHz3.6 GHz$33516438M2.2 GHz2.8 GHz3.9 GHz$32736434H8 (16)3.7 GHz4.1 GHz22.5 MB195 W4S$307064342S$2607643032 (64)2.1 GHz2.6 GHz3.4 GHz60.0 MB270 W4400 MT/s$21286428N1.8 GHz2.5 GHz3.8 GHz185 W4000 MT/s$32006426Y16 (32)2.5 GHz3.3 GHz4.1 GHz37.5 MB4800 MT/s$15176421N32 (64)1.8 GHz2.6 GHz3.6 GHz60.0 MB1S4400 MT/s$23686418H24 (48)2.1 GHz2.9 GHz4.0 GHz4S4800 MT/s$20656416H18 (36)2.2 GHz4.2 GHz45.0 MB165 W$14446414U32 (64)2.0 GHz2.6 GHz3.4 GHz60.0 MB250 W1S0$22965420+28 (56)2.7 GHz4.1 GHz52.5 MB205 W2S4400 MT/s3$18485418Y24 (48)2.8 GHz3.8 GHz45.0 MB185 W$14835418N1.8 GHz2.6 GHz165 W4000 MT/s$16645416S16 (32)2.0 GHz2.8 GHz4.0 GHz30.0 MB150 W4400 MT/s$9445415+8 (16)2.9 GHz3.6 GHz4.1 GHz22.5 MB$10665412U24 (48)2.1 GHz2.9 GHz3.9 GHz45.0 MB185 W1S0$11135411N1.9 GHz2.8 GHz165 W3$1388Xeon Silver (4400)4416+20 (40)2.0 GHz2.9 GHz3.9 GHz37.5 MB165 W2S4000 MT/s2$11764410Y12 (24)2.8 GHz30.0 MB150 W$5634410T10 (20)2.7 GHz3.4 GHz4.0 GHz26.25 MB$624Xeon Bronze (3400, 3500)3508U8 (8)2.1 GHz2.2 GHz22.5 MB125 W1S4400 MT/s0$415-$4253408U1.8 GHz1.9 GHz4000 MT/s

Sapphire Rapids-WS (Workstation)

With its maximum of 60 cores, Sapphire Rapids-WS competes with AMD's Threadripper PRO 5000WX Chagall with up to 64 cores. Like Intel's Core product segmentation into i3, i5, i7 and i9, Sapphire Rapids-WS is labeled Xeon w3, w5, w7 and w9. Sapphire Rapids-WS was unveiled in February 2023, and was made available for OEMs in March. CPUs with "X" suffix have its multiplier unlocked for overclocking.

No suffix letter: Locked clock multiplier X: Unlocked clock multiplier (adjustable with no ratio limit) Xeon W-2400/2500 uses a monolithic design and supports up to 64 PCI Express 5.0 lanes, while Xeon W-3400/3500 uses a chiplet design and supports up to 112 lanes. Both support 8 DMI 4.0 lanes.

ModelCores(threads)Clock rate (GHz)SmartcacheRegisteredDDR5w. ECCsupportTDPReleaseMSRP(USD)BaseTurbo BoostBaseTurbo2.03.0Xeon W-3400 (SPR-112L)w9-3495X56 (112)1.94.64.8105 MB8-channel4800 MT/s4 TB350 W420 W$5889w9-3475X36 (72)2.282.5 MB300 W$3739w7-3465X28 (56)2.575.0 MB360 W$2889w7-345524 (48)67.5 MB270 W324 W$2489w7-344520 (40)2.652.5 MB$1989w5-3435X16 (32)3.14.54.745.0 MB$1589w5-342512 (24)3.24.44.630.0 MB$1189Xeon W-2400 (SPR-64L)w7-2495X24 (48)2.54.64.845.0 MB4-channel4800 MT/s2 TB225 W270 W$2189w7-2475X20 (40)2.637.5 MB$1789w5-2465X16 (32)3.14.54.733.75 MB200 W240 W$1389w5-2455X12 (24)3.24.44.630.0 MB$1039w5-244510 (20)3.126.25 MB175 W210 W$839w3-24358 (16)4.34.522.5 MB4-channel4400 MT/s2 TB165 W198 W$669w3-24256 (12)3.04.24.415.0 MB130 W156 W$529w3-24232.14.04.2120 W144 W$359

ModelCores(threads)Clock rate (GHz)SmartcacheRegisteredDDR5w. ECCsupportTDPReleaseMSRP(USD)BaseTurbo BoostBaseTurbo2.03.0Xeon W-3500 (SPR-112L Refresh)w9-3595X60 (120)2.04.64.8112.5 MB8-channel4800 MT/s4 TB385 W462 W$5889w9-3575X44 (88)2.297.5 MB340 W408 W$3789w7-3565X32 (64)2.582.5 MB335 W402 W$2689w7-355528 (56)2.775.0 MB325 W390 W$2339w7-354524 (48)67.5 MB315 W372 W$2039w5-3535X20 (40)2.952.5 MB300 W360 W$1689w5-352516 (32)3.245.0 MB290 W348 W$1389Xeon W-2500 (SPR-64L Refresh)w7-2595X26 (52)2.84.64.848.75 MB4-channel4800 MT/s2 TB250 W300 W$2039w7-2575X22 (44)3.045.0 MB$1689w5-2565X18 (36)3.237.5 MB240 W288 W$1339w5-2555X14 (28)3.333.75 MB210 W252 W$1069w5-254512 (24)3.54.54.730.0 MB$889w3-253510 (20)4.44.626.25 MB185 W222 W$739w3-25258 (16)4.34.522.5 MB175 W210 W$609

See also Intel's process–architecture–optimization model Intel's tick–tock model List of Intel CPU microarchitectures

References