288 E cores, hosting hyper-threading
Intel’s Clearwater Forest looks to be a very impressive upgrade to Intel’s server chips. It will be built on their 18A process and will replace the aging FinFET design with RibbonFET. For RibbonFETs, where the transistor gate is wrapped around the channel, the hose channel can be of different widths, which will have a positive impact on efficiency. In addition to the new gate technology, Intel’s new backside power solution called PowerVIA will increase efficiency, cell density, and even allow for slightly higher frequencies.
These Xeon chips are still the way to go, and the next generation will be Sierra Forest, which will scale all the way up to 288 E-cores. Intel has excluded P-cores from these server chips in order to provide a large number of cores without causing server room fires. High core counts mean they don’t need to rely on hyperthreading, which can cause server loads to run slower than normal.
ServeTheHome has all the details we know so far right here.