Intel’s 14nm Xeon D Lineup Leaks Out – Eight Core SoC with ‘Big’ Cores Coming in Q2 2015

Intel announced the Xeon D platform a month ago in September and it consists of high powered SoCs based on the 14nm broadwell architecture. Infact, the platform was previously called Broadwell DE. We have seen Intel diversifying its lineups in the past with the introduction of Core M and now we see the same thing with Xeon D, which is basically merging the high powered Xeon processors with the low power requirements of Atom SOCs.

‘Big’ Octa Core SoCs to feature in Intel Xeon D Preliminary Lineup

So blue here is using some pretty interesting buzz words, specifically ‘Big’ cores. I think what the marketing team at their HQ is trying to portray is the fact that even though the Xeon D platform consists of SoCs, they are not low performance, rather only low power. The cores are based on Broadwell Architecture and will support VT-X/VT-d virtualization, RAS features and the entire TXT, AVX2, TSX Instruction set (hopefully with the bug fixed). The chipset logic however will be incorporated on system and will make for a more efficient foot print than the customary two chip solution where the chipset logic lies on the motherboard.

Platform	Cores	Implementation	TDP	Launch Date
Xeon D	8 cores	Server	45W	Q2 2015 (limited networking features)
Xeon D	8 cores	Server	45W	Q3 2015
Xeon D	8 cores	Embedded	35W and 45W	Q3 2015
Xeon D	6 cores	Server	45W	Q3 2015
Xeon D	6 cores	Embedded	35W	Q3 2015
Xeon D	4 cores	Server	45W	Q3 2015
Xeon D	4 cores	Embedded	25W and 35W	Q3 2015
Xeon D	2 cores	Embedded	25W	Q3 2015
Pentium	2 cores	Embedded	less than 20W	Q3 2015

It will support both DDR3 and DDR4 memory controllers and will be significantly faster than the Atom Rangeley lineup. Broadwell-DE is scheduled for Q2 2015, and sine we know that Xeon D is a derivation of Broadwell-DE we can safely say that it is launching in Q2 2015 as well. However, CPU World believes that only one SKU will launch in Q2 2015, which is an 8 core Xeon D counterpart with the remaining SKUs following suit in the third quarter. Intel is preparing 3 Broadwell-DE SKUs, 5 Xeon D SKUs and 1 Pentium SKUs for a grand total of 9 chips in the coming year. All of them will be based on the 14nm node and will have TDP of 45W. Broadwell-DE variants will come in Quad Core, Hexa Core and Octa Core designs. The Pentium variant will be a dual core with very low TDP requirements (20W). Some of the chips mentioned here can operate in an extended temperature range for increased performance.