Intel details 28-core Xeon part, new Core-X Series

Intel has officially confirmed some specifications of its 28-core, 56-thread Xeon CPU first announced at Computex 2018, as well as new Core-X Series high-end desktop (HEDT parts).

The Intel Xeon W-3175X has a peak boost frequency of 4.3GHz out of the box. It delivers up to 125GB/s of memory bandwidth and supports advanced instruction sets like AVX-512. It's supported by the Intel C621 chipset, and can support six-channel DDR4 (maximum capacity 512GB at 2,666MHz). The product will begin shipping in December, but as yet there is no word on pricing.

Next on the agenda was an update to the Intel Core X-Series processors, including Core i7, Core i9, and Core i9 Extreme parts ranging from eight to 18 cores. You can see the new SKUs in the spec table below; the range will top out with an 18-core/36-thread part, he Core i9-9980XE (replacing the Core i9-7980XE), and every single CPU will now support 68 lanes of PCIe 3.0 (44 from the CPU, the remainder from the PCH) – evidently a response to rival AMD’s support for 64 such lanes on all Threadripper CPUs, which still hold the highest core count thanks to the 32-core Threadripper 2990WX. There are increased frequencies and cache sizes as well as a new solder-based thermal interface material (TIM) between the cores and the heat spreader to help with overclocking efforts. The new Core X-Series processors will begin shipping in November.

The new wave of Core X processors support Turbo Boost Max, whereby the fastest cores are identified in manufacturing so that lighter-threaded workloads can be passed onto them where they can run at higher speeds (up to 4.5GHz). The scalable Mesh Architecture ensures that - unlike the more-than-16-core Threadripper parts - every core on all parts has direct access to the onboard cache as well as predictable latencies between the cores/cache and cores/memory. The parts are built on Intel's 14nm++ process, continue to use the Skylake-X architecture, and will be compatible with the existing X299 platform and LGA 2066 socket.

We are currently at a 9th Gen Intel Core desktop event reporting as we go, so we'll update this story if and when we get further details.