Intel Xeon “Sapphire Rapids” Volume Shipping Delayed Again: Company

Intel’s ambitious next-generation server processor, Xeon “Sapphire Rapids,” hit its second shipping delay this year, according to the company. Speaking at the Bank of America Securities Global Technology Conference, Intel’s Sandra Rivera stated that the volume ramp for “Sapphire Rapids,” is not going as planned, indicating that its general availability could be delayed for the second time after original plans to do so in the first quarter of 2022.

Riviera was quick to defend the Intel 7 silicon fabrication node (10 nm Enhanced SuperFin) that the “Sapphire Rapids” chip is based on. “One thing I didn’t mention on Sapphire, it sits on – it’s on our 7-nanometer node and so the process is quite healthy. In fact Alder Lake, which is our client product ramped 15 million units. I think we announced at Q1 earnings, which makes that the fastest ramping, you know one of the fastest ramping client products in almost a decade.”

The arrival of “Sapphire Rapids” is particularly important for Intel as demand for server processors are at an all time high, with growth in cloud data-centers. AMD is readying its 4th Generation EPYC “Genoa” Zen 4 processors for later this year. Both “Genoa” and “Sapphire Rapids” herald support for next-generation I/O, including DDR5 memory and PCI-Express Gen 5.