Intel officially introduced the new generation Diamond Rapids “Xeon 7” processors, which it plans to release in 2027. Built on 18A-P manufacturing technology, these data center chips offer up to 192 P-cores and 16-channel memory support to meet high-performance computing needs. In order to increase its competitiveness in the information center market, the company combines this series with advanced features such as PCIe Gen6 support with a scalable system architecture and optimizes it for large-scale infrastructures. With this new product family, Intel aims to lead in artificial intelligence and heavy information processing processes.

Intel Pushes Performance Limits with 18A-P Technology

After proving the success of 18A production technology with projects such as Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest, Intel is moving to the 18A-P architecture, which is its next big step. The Diamond Rapids series stands out as the first high-performance data center chips to use this new manufacturing process.
According to the published technical details, the processors have a massive structure consisting of four CPU chips and two large I/O dies at the center of them. This design was optimized to provide uniform memory latency in data centers.

Diamond Rapids provides a significant 50 percent increase in core count compared to the Granite Rapids series.

Productivity Increases with Panther Cove-X Architecture

The new processors aim to offer high thread performance by being powered by the Panther Cove-X P-Core architecture. Intel chooses to disable SMT technology in this new architecture and establishes a pure performance-oriented structure.
It is stated that these processors, which contain 192 P-cores in total, are supported up to 650W TDP to meet heavy workloads in information centers. This hardware structure provides valuable advantages, especially for platforms that offer IaaS services.

Memory and Communication Technologies are Renewed

Unlike standard Granite Rapids systems, the Diamond Rapids platform separates the memory controller (IMC) from the processor die. The 16-channel memory design doubles the system bandwidth, promising a major performance increase, especially in applications with limited memory bandwidth. In addition, PCIe Gen6 support provides the high speed and wide scalability required for IO processes at the information center level. Intel states that 512-core models can also work compatible with this platform, offering data center operators flexibility in infrastructure transitions.

Future Plans and Competition Are Taking Shape

In the post-Diamond Rapids era, Intel aims to be on the market around 2028 with the Coral Rapids series, which disables SMT support again. The company is in heavy competition with NVIDIA’s Vera and AMD’s Venice processor families. Especially with the rise of AI workloads, Intel is expected to launch customized x86 SKUs with NVLINK, developed in collaboration with NVIDIA. These strategic moves are considered critical steps taken by Intel to maintain its dominance in the information center market.

What are your intentions about Intel’s 192-core Diamond Rapids processors? Do you think such a high number of cores and costs such as 650W TDP are needed in data centers? Share with us in the comments.