Intel, in a groundbreaking announcement, revealed the introduction of the 5th Gen Intel Xeon processor family, marking a substantial leap forward in both performance and efficiency within the data center sphere.
The latest generation of Xeon processors boasts impressive advancements, showcasing a remarkable 21 percent average performance boost for general compute tasks compared to its predecessor.
Additionally, these processors exhibit a 36 percent increase in average performance per watt across a spectrum of customer workloads. For businesses adhering to a standard five-year refresh cycle and upgrading from older generations, this advancement promises a potential reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of up to 77 percent.
The latest report from Synergy Research Group show that the average capacity of hyperscale data centers to be opened over the next six years will soon be more than double that of current operational hyperscale data centers.
As the number of GPUs in hyperscale data centers skyrockets, driven primarily by AI, so the power density of associated racks and data center facilities also need to increase substantially. This is causing hyperscale operators to rethink some of their data center architecture and deployment plans, the report said. 
A defining feature of the Xeon processor lies in its embedded AI acceleration capabilities. The 5th Gen Xeon delivers a significant 42 percent enhancement in inference and fine-tuning capabilities, accommodating models as extensive as 20 billion parameters. Notably, it stands as the sole CPU boasting consistent and continually improving MLPerf training and inference benchmark results.
The integration of AI accelerators within the Xeon, coupled with optimized software and enhanced telemetry functions, facilitates more efficient and manageable deployments of intricate network and edge workloads. This development caters to a wide spectrum of industries, including communication service providers, content delivery networks, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing.
During the unveiling event, prominent tech entities showcased remarkable performance metrics achieved with the 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors. IBM reported a staggering 2.7x increase in query throughput on its watsonx.data platform compared to the previous generation Xeon.
Meanwhile, Google Cloud highlighted Palo Alto Networks’ 2x surge in performance for threat detection deep learning models using the built-in acceleration of the 4th Gen Xeon through Google Cloud.
Indie game studio Gallium Studios leveraged Numenta’s AI platform on Xeon processors, witnessing a remarkable 6.5x improvement in inference performance over a GPU-based cloud instance, thereby optimizing cost and latency in their AI-based game, Proxi.
Moreover, Intel showcased the inaugural operational iteration of the Gaudi 3 chip during the event. This unveiling signals Intel’s ambition to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the data center AI market, underscoring the rapid expansion of Intel’s Gaudi pipeline.
Fueled by proven performance advantages, competitive Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and pricing strategies, Intel anticipates a substantial increase in demand for its suite of AI accelerators, spearheaded by Gaudi, expecting a larger share of the accelerator market by 2024.
Intel’s latest advancements in the 5th Gen Xeon processors and the emergence of the Gaudi series underscore the company’s steadfast commitment to redefining data center capabilities and seizing a prominent foothold in the evolving landscape of AI-driven solutions.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
