Intel Delays Its Monster Server CPU

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) made significant progress last year in its server central processing unit (CPU) business. The company has been losing market share to AMD for years, partly because it was stuck on its aging Intel 7 manufacturing process. Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids, which both launched in 2023, struggled to keep up with AMD's server CPUs and featured maximum core counts well below the competition.In 2024, Intel rolled out two new families of server CPUs. The company split its server CPU lineup in two, with Sierra Forest packing power-sipping efficiency cores designed for cloud workloads and Granite Rapids featuring powerful cores meant to tackle the most compute-intensive applications. Sierra Forest offered as many as 144 cores on a single chip, while Granite Rapids maxed out at 128 cores. For perspective, Emerald Rapids went up to only 64 cores.Both Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids are built on the Intel 3 process. Intel 3 still isn't on par with the most advanced processes offered by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), but it's a massive leap forward compared to Intel 7. While Intel certainly didn't leapfrog AMD with either product line, the company made up a lot of ground in terms of performance and efficiency.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool