Intel’s DPG Launch Event April 6th: Early Look at 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake)
by Dr. Ian Cutress on March 19, 2021 2:05 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Storage
- Networking
- Intel
- Xeon
- NAND
- Enterprise
- DRAM
- Optane
- AI
- Xeon Scalable
- ML
Today Intel has announced that it will be holding a launch event on April 6th for the new vision of its Data Platform Group. This event is set to ‘unveil the next chapter’ in all the areas that Intel’s DPG touches, from edge to cloud, as well as offering an early look at 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable systems, which we’ve come to understand is the Ice Lake Xeon platform. Key speakers at the event include Intel’s new CEO, Pat Gelsinger.
Update 3/22:
Intel has formally clarified today that this event on April 6th will be the formal official launch of 3rd Generation Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake). Official start time for the event is 8am PT on April 6th.
How Wonderful Gets Done 2021
Subtly dropped in my email today as part of the Intel weekly on data center progress, the company have announced a ‘How Wonderful Gets Done 2021’ event built upon the Data Platform Group’s progress as well as the vision for the segment of Intel looking to the future. The key headliner, present in our email but not on Intel’s website, is that the event will host an ‘early look at 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based systems’. It is unclear if this means CPUs or just OEM designs, or if we’ll see benchmarks, but it is clear that Intel’s OEM partners are practically ready to go based on some of the published data already available.
From the email
One of the accompanying videos on the event website is a 10 second montage of things forming the letter ‘X’, and the words ‘what will you solve for’.
The event will be held on Tuesday April 6th, starting at 8am PT, with keynotes from new Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, EVP and GM of DPG Navin Shenoy, and CVP and GM of the Xeon and Memory Group, Lisa Spelman.
Sessions for the day will include:
- AI, Wei Li, VP and GM of Machine Learning Performance, Design Engineering Group
- IoT, John Healy, VP IOTG, GM Platform Management and Customer Engineering
- 5G Networking, Dan Rodriguez, CVP and GM, Network Platforms Group
- HPC, Trish Damkroger, VP and GM HPC, Data Platfoms Group
- Cloud, Rebecca Weekly, VP and GM, Hyperscale Strategy; Senior Principle Engineer, DPG
Recently it was announced that Pat Gelsinger will be hosting an event on March 23rd, and in that announcement an image of an Ice Lake Xeon Scalable wafer was given as the title image for that announcement, perhaps indicating that the release of ICL-SP is close. Intel did say at the beginning of the year that ICL-SP is expected to launch ‘within months’, and a number of Intel’s partners are already starting to demonstrate systems with appropriate processor support.
We also learned recently that Intel has already shipped 115K+ (and more) Ice Lake Xeon Scalable processors to over 30 of its high-profile customers, even though the processors have not yet been launched. This is typical for a server processor, as these customers also help test, debug, and deploy the hardware at scale so it is ready to go from day one.
Similarly, in discussions with Intel, it is clear that the company is keen to promote its combined solution efforts to the market when it comes to the data center – Intel’s value, according to the company, is in its ability to provide the CPU, the networking, the memory, the storage, the AI accelerators, the software, the optimizations, the range of options, and the support structure that its competitors cannot. This combined solution Intel believes affords its customers a better TCO offering, as well as better optimized performance especially now that workloads are hitting a variety of bottlenecks such as storage, connectivity, and acceleration.
We are all set up for the event and will be watching along. If there are opportunities to ask questions, you bet we will.
Source: Intel
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mode_13h - Friday, March 19, 2021 - link
> Intel has already shipped ... Ice Lake Xeon Scalable processors to ... its high-profile customers, even though the processors have not yet been launched. This is typical for a server processor ...Haven't they been saying that since way back in 2019? That's NOT typical of a server processor.
mode_13h - Friday, March 19, 2021 - link
Found it!https://www.anandtech.com/show/14314/intel-xeon-up...
> May 9, 2019
> At present, Intel is already sampling ... Ice Lake processors with customers, and claims that it is on track to ship these CPUs in volumes in the first half of next year.
Oof. And we *still* don't even have a launch date for general availability!
Smell This - Saturday, March 20, 2021 - link
Ouch ... That hurts. Just a month after Cascade.
No wonder Chipzillah is using their heft in slide shows and 'personalities' ...
At least, Intel bought 2 years' time between the **new Second Generation Enterprise Xeon Scalable processors, known as Cascade Lake** and now. Sadly, now, the Cascades will be orphaned (I guess) ...
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14146/intel-xeon-sc...
- April 2, 2019
Santoval - Saturday, March 27, 2021 - link
"Sampling" suggests extremely low volume, not the 115K+ Intel has not shipped. Still, a 2-year delay between "sampling" and launch (since the paper launch is in April I assume the real launch will be in May) is obviously unprecedented. And since Ice Lake-SP is to be fabbed on Ice Lake's node I expect the clocks will be very low..Santoval - Saturday, March 27, 2021 - link
edit : "Intel has *now* shipped".edzieba - Monday, March 22, 2021 - link
It's very typical of server and HPC chips, and has been for a long time.Consumer chips appear to pop up fully-formed in a puff of marketing, but server dies have a much longer lead-in before announcement (let alone public availability for a handful that are sold through retail channels). Cascade Lake made it explicit, but these large server chips are designed in concert with the customers who order tens to hundreds of thousands of dies. There's an ongoing exchange with customers describing the workloads they're expecting to encounter over the next few years, and chip makers providing early sample dies to test those workloads on.
This is why server CPUs 'launch' in production environments running optimised code.
All of this occurs under NDA, so you won't find people detailing the process outside of official press releases (as with Cascade Lake). This isn't just so chipmakers can keep new CPUs secret, it's so customers can keep their future workload predictions secret (if Big Data Processor is known to be wanting to optimise for a certain workload, that provides insights into their desired future product targeting).
Spunjji - Monday, March 22, 2021 - link
I think "Haven't they been saying that since way back in 2019?" is the crucial part of mode_13h's post.Server processors do indeed have a long lead-in, but Ice Lake SP's lead-in has been protracted to say the least.
mode_13h - Monday, March 22, 2021 - link
If it launched a year ago, like they promised in May, 2019, you'd be on the mark. However, this launch is anything but typical (contrary to what this article suggests).mode_13h - Friday, March 19, 2021 - link
> "How Wonderful Gets Done"That just sounds weird and so disconnected from any technical merits of their products that it gives the impression Intel has whipped its marketing and PR departments into overdrive. I smell fear.
GeoffreyA - Saturday, March 20, 2021 - link
Exactly, and in poor taste. It's a bit sad seeing how Marketing has taken over, now that technicals are behind. Same story in the other articles. Marketing gimmicks; smoke and mirrors; trying to save the day.