Intel Confirms DDR5-8800 Memory For Granite Rapids “Xeon 6” CPUs, JEDEC DDR5-8800 For Next-Gen Servers

Intel & JEDEC have pointed out DDR5-8800 memory capabilities for next-gen servers such as Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids" CPUs with up to 128 cores.

Intel Granite Rapids "Xeon 6" CPUs Are Running DDR5 Memory At Speeds of Up To 8800 MT/s Which Is Part of Updated JEDEC Specs For Next-Gen Servers

A few days ago, JEDEC published its new JESD79-5C DDR5 SDRAM standard which mainly focuses on elevating the performance and security features of next-gen server platforms. The main high-lights of the standard include the expansion of timing parameters definition from 6800 Mbps to a staggering 8800 Mbps speed.

• Expansion of timing parameters definition from 6800 Mbps to 8800 Mbps
• Inclusion of DRAM core timings and Tx/Rx AC timings extended up to 8800 Mbps, compared to the previous version which supported only up to 6400 timing parameters and partial pieces up to 7200 DRAM core timings
• Introduction of Self-Refresh Exit Clock Sync for I/O Training Optimization
• Incorporation of DDP (Dual-Die Package) timings
• Deprecation of PASR (Partial Array Self Refresh) to address security concerns

Although JEDEC only pointed out that the new standard will be used in next-gen high-performance servers which will power AI and machine learning workloads, Intel spilled the beans itself when it confirmed the use of DDR5-8800 memory on its Granite Rapids "Xeon 6" CPU platform which is to be shipped later this year.

The reveal comes from Intel's recent Meta Llama 3 benchmarks in which the company tested its Granite Rapids "Xeon 6" CPU. Although the information regarding the SKU is not mentioned, it is mentioned in the footnotes that the chip features 120 P-Cores based on the Redwood Cove core architecture and 240 threads (HT On). The platform was a 2S configuration so you are looking at two 120-core chips for a total of 240 cores and 480 threads.

Based on the most recent spec leak, we can point out this SKU as the Xeon 6 6979P which is a 500W Granite Rapids-AP SKU that will be compatible with the LGA 7592 socket and offer 12 memory channels. The platform was running 1.5 TB of DDR5 memory (24 x 64 GB) clocked at 8800 MT/s which is the first official confirmation of the use of such high-speed memory for servers.

Intel Xeon Processor: Measurement on Intel Xeon 6 Processor (formerly code-named: Granite Rapids) using: Intel 2x Intel® Xeon® Platinum, 120 cores, HT On, Turbo On, NUMA 6, Integrated Accelerators Available [used]: DLB [8], DSA [8], IAA[8], QAT[8], Total Memory 1536GB (24x64GB DDR5 8800 MT/s [8800 MT/s])

Intel

DDR5-8800 speeds for the memory alone will be a huge upgrade compared to the DDR5-4800 speeds that 4th Gen Xeon "Sapphire Rapids" and DDR5-5600 speeds that the 5th Gen Xeon "Emerald Rapids" lineup supports.

If the IMC for the server Xeon SKUs is so good, we can expect the same silicon to be even better for consumer-centric platforms such as the upcoming Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPUs which will be using the same Redwood Cove core architecture. Memory manufacturers are gunning for over 9000 MT/s speeds recently and we might see good support for such DRAM modules with future platforms.

Next-Gen Intel Xeon vs AMD EPYC Generational CPU Comparison (Preliminary):

News Source: Ruby_Rapids