Please note that this post is tagged as a rumor.
Intel rumored to launch Alder Lake-X series
Release notes for the upcoming AIDA64 Extreme Beta suggest Intel might be developing a new X-Series CPUs.
There are still more question than answers about Intel’s upcoming Intel HEDT platform. Officially, Intel has not mentioned its Sapphire Rapids-X series yet, but unofficially it now expected to launch later this year, possibly around the third quarter.
According to recent AIDA64 patch notes, Intel might be developing the 12th Gen Core “Alder Lake-X” series, presumably based on the same 16-core silicon as the LGA1700 series.
The upcoming Xeon/HEDT platform could therefore be divided into Sapphire Rapids and Alder Lake series. The Sapphire Rapids-X is a long-awaited successor to the Cascade Lake-X, and it would primarily focus on the workstation market, rather than enthusiast gaming systems. In that regard, Intel will be following the AMD Threadripper path, who are now focusing on the PRO series. The Alder Lake-X series could be considered a successor to the Kaby Lake-X series released in 2017 alongside Skylake-X.
Intel Alder Lake-X mentioned in software patch notes,Source: AIDA64
In terms of specs, Sapphire Rapids is rumored to be divided into two series, high-end workstation and mainstream workstation. The former could feature more cores and 8-channel ECC memory support, as well as 112 PCIe Gen5 lanes. The mainstream series are expected to lack EEC support, and have PCIe lane support limited to 64. Furthermore, at least two SPR dies are being discussed, the XCC (Xtreme Core Count die) with up to 56 cores and HCC/MCC (High Core Count) die with unspecified number of cores. One might assume that Alder Lake-X will be part of the mainstream workstation platform, filling the low-core gap.
Specifications of Intel Sapphire Rapids, Source: Moore’s Law is Dead
Furthermore, since Intel fused off the AVX-512 instruction support from the Core S-Series SKUs, one could assume that the X-Series could bring this feature back. Both Sapphire Rapids-X and Alder Lake-X should be part of Intel’s upcoming Fishhawk platform.
Source: AIDA64 via Tom’s Hardware
