It looks like Intel’s upcoming Whitley server platform is still undergoing huge spec changes. SemiAccurate thinks this latest one is nothing short of sheer desperation.
You have probably already heard about Whitley, the Intel server platform coming in 2020 that will support the 14nm Cooper Lake in 1H/20 and the 10nm Ice Lake chips in 2H/20. When we exclusively told you about Cooper Lake over a year ago we said the specs were fluid. We later told you a bit more about the device, and then the cooling woes.
A few months later we exclusively brought you performance numbers for Cooper, Ice, Rome, and Milan. We pointed out how badly Cooper would fare and how Ice Lake server would not catch Intel up with AMD’s Rome, a chip that will debut over a year earlier than Ice. SemiAccurate wasn’t shy about stating Intel’s positioning in servers for 2019 and 2020 and the pieces that have been released back up our data points.
One thing that bothered use from the first moment we learned about Cooper Lake was how fluid the specs were. This isn’t a simple case of a clock changing or a feature being fused on or off, Cooper was undergoing serious spec revisions on an almost weekly basis. These are changes that would require major silicon revisions. It looked to be a mess of Epyc(-ly induced) proportions.
Then things calmed down for a bit and the specs just looked underwhelming, flat out noncompetitive on any front and that is before pricing was taken into account. In case you are curious, Intel’s pricing does not help their position. So at this late date Intel is leaping into action to make further technical changes that move things further in the wrong direction. According to several OEMs SemiAccurate has talked to it will make things worse on just about every front, a grab at a halo like the moribund Xeon Platinum 9200 series. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse…
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Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Services, Inc. have no consulting relationships, investment relationships, or hold any investment positions with any of the companies mentioned in this report.
Charlie Demerjian
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