Intel (INTC) Xeon 6+ Brings 288 E-Cores on 18A

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) previewed Xeon 6+, code named Clearwater Forest, as its first server processor built on the Intel 18A process, carrying up to 288 efficiency cores and a 17% instructions per cycle uplift over the prior generation.

The part is an E-core design rather than a performance core product. Intel has described it as the most efficient server processor it has built, aimed at hyperscale data centres, cloud providers and telecommunications operators, where density and throughput per watt determine the economics rather than single thread speed.

Manufacturing sits at Fab 52 in Chandler, Arizona, the facility Intel has built for 18A production alongside Panther Lake and the multiple product generations that follow. Intel 18A is the first 2nm class node the company has developed, using RibbonFET transistors and PowerVia backside power delivery.

For buyers, the relevant question is what it replaces. Xeon 6+ addresses scale-out workloads where a rack full of efficient cores outperforms a smaller number of large cores. It does not displace Xeon Scalable performance core parts in transactional and virtualisation workloads, where per core licensing and single thread performance still drive the configuration.

That distinction matters commercially. Enterprise refresh cycles continue to run on Xeon Scalable and, further back, Xeon E5 v3 and v4, and those platforms remain in service for years after a new node arrives.

Intel Foundry has separately entered high volume manufacturing for a subset of Core Ultra Series 3 processors using ASML High NA EUV equipment.

Tech Seller USA supplies Intel server processors, including Xeon Scalable Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum and Xeon E5 v3 and v4 parts, alongside a wider range of enterprise CPUs.