Sapphire Rapids arrives

Intel yesterday announced its new desktop workstation processors, the Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 series components. The flagship is the Xeon w9-3495X, a 56-core, 112-thread monster that Intel calls “the most powerful desktop workstation processor ever designed.” These CPUs feature Intel’s Sapphire Rapids architecture, built with “new integrated multi-die interface bridge (EMIB) packaging.

More than a PC upgrade, the overall platform for these new processors is significantly improved compared to previous generations, with up to 112 PCIe 5.0 lanes (W-3400) and 8-channel DDR5 RDIMM support (up to 4 TB) among the top characteristics.