Gain Insights into Intel® Xeon® 6 with E-Cores: Built for Cloud Native and Hyperscale Workloads
Intel® Xeon® 6 processors mark an important evolutionary step in server processor architecture by diverging Intel® Xeon® product lines across E-core and Performance-core (P-core) offerings. The key difference is that E-core offerings pack in single-threaded cores for scale-out, parallel workloads, whereas P-core processors feature hyperthreaded cores and built-in matrix engines designed for more-compute-intensive workloads such as AI. Learn why the Intel Xeon 6 processor is great for digital service providers.
Drive Efficiency with a Common Platform Foundation and Shared Software Stack
All Intel® Xeon® 6 processors, regardless of P-core or E-core focus, feature the same instruction sets, BIOS, and built-in I/O accelerators—including Intel® QuickAssist Technology (Intel® QAT), Intel® Data Streaming Accelerator (Intel® DSA), Intel® In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (Intel® IAA), Intel® Dynamic Load Balancer (Intel® DLB).They also support the same drivers, operating systems, and applications and the same reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) capabilities that data centers rely on.
Explore Intel® Xeon® 6 Processor with E-Core Advantages
IT decision-makers who manage workloads focused on high-traffic, low-intensity tasks such as cloud-native microservices, scale-out analytics, and networking workloads will benefit the most from Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores. This processor offering drives exceptional performance per watt and rack density to help data centers achieve more consistency and efficiency within their power budget.
Maximize Single-Threaded Performance with High Throughput
With up to 288 cores, Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores deliver efficient performance for high-throughput workloads, ideal where power, space, and cooling are limited. For an additional boost, built-in accelerators speed up performance for encryption, scale-out databases, and digital services. E-cores feature high memory bandwidth and rich I/O with up to 12 channels of DDR5, up to 64 lanes of CXL 2.0, and up to 96 lanes of PCIe 5.0.
Performance Validation:
- Up to 24x performance and 8x performance per watt for CDN workloads on Intel Xeon 6780 with E-cores compared to 2nd Gen Intel Xeon1
- 5:1 server consolidation compared to 2nd Gen Intel Xeon at maintained performance level2
- Up to 1.3x better Media Transcode performance/watt vs AMD EPYC3
Enable More Choice, Interoperability, and Reliability for Cloud-Scale Workflows
Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores deliver powerful interoperability with the largest ecosystem of solution providers, the broadest range of cloud types, and the proven reliability features of the Intel® Xeon® platform.
To help integrate AI inferencing, which is increasingly found in e-commerce and content platforms, Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores feature Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (Intel® AVX2) with support for both VNNI/int8 and BF16/FP16. Compatibility between P-cores and E-cores means developers can easily migrate code from different hardware environments without the need to recode software or AI models.
Contribute to Lower Costs and Carbon Footprint with Energy-Efficient Compute
As cost per watt in the data center continues to rise, IT teams must ensure workloads run efficiently while meeting service-level agreements (SLAs) for performance and uptime. E-cores are designed to prioritize density and efficiency to help IT teams lower energy costs while managing space and power constraints. Built-in accelerators give an additional boost to targeted workloads for powerful performance and efficiency, while telemetry and other sustainability features empower teams in their efforts to reduce operational carbon footprint.
Rely on Trusted, Quality Solutions and Security Features
Pursue new business models and data sharing across on-premises, edge, and cloud servers, even when working with sensitive or regulated data. Confidential computing with trusted execution environments (TEEs) helps protect data and AI models while in use. Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores allow customers to pick the confidential computing technologies that best meet their business and regulatory requirements.
- Application isolation: Intel® Software Guard Extensions (Intel® SGX) provides application isolation designed to protect data in use. Intel® SGX is the most researched and updated confidential computing technology in data centers on the market today.
- Virtual machine (VM)‒level isolation: Intel® Trust Domain Extensions (Intel® TDX) offers isolation and confidentiality at the VM level. Within an Intel® TDX confidential VM, the guest OS and VM applications are isolated from access by the cloud host, hypervisor, and other VMs on the platform.
Enhance Targeted Workloads Optimized for E-Cores
Up to 288 cores per socket, high memory bandwidth, and rich I/O make Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores ideal for high-density, scale-out workloads.
Accelerate Databases and Analytics
Nonrelational databases and analytics workloads characterized by numerous small, independent data retrieval requests can benefit from the high core counts and memory capacity of Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores. These platforms support high volumes of requests and instructions in parallel and benefit from integrated I/O acceleration of Intel® QAT and Intel® DSA that help offload data encryption, compression, and movement operations to free up CPU cycles. As a result, databases and enterprise apps run smoother and deliver fast response times.
Increase Networking Capacity
The scale and efficiency of Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores enable networks to process high volumes of packets, support high numbers of users, and enable dense deployments. Network operators can achieve high capacity to support business growth or help consolidate infrastructure to optimize operating expenditures.
Deliver Responsive Web Services and Microservices
Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores excel at processing high numbers of service requests in parallel. Because the processor cores are single-threaded, they also overcome challenges associated with resource contention in hyperthreaded cores. As a result, businesses can help minimize overhead while supporting increasing volumes of users and transactions per server, and they’re better equipped to adapt to sudden changes in web traffic and workload spikes.
Economize Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) at Scale
Cloud service providers (CSPs) can deploy Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores to help reduce operational costs while offering efficient IaaS to customers with lower computational needs, such as for static web hosting or lightweight databases. The powerful density of E-cores supports high numbers of VMs at a cost-efficient economy of scale, contributing to a low total cost of ownership (TCO). CSPs also benefit by offering instances running either E-cores or P-cores, creating more choice with more differentiated service offerings.
Learn More about Intel® Xeon® 6 Processors
There are many advantages to deploying both Intel® Xeon® 6 processors with E-cores and P-cores. To better understand the technical and competitive advantages of both, download and read this analysis by Prowess Consulting, and contact your Intel representative to get started.