Intel puts the CPU back in the AI conversation: Xeon 6+ is the company's first data center chip on the 18A process, positioned as the 'control layer' of AI infrastructure. Up to 288 cores per socket.
- Intel Xeon 6+: the first data center processor on the new 18A process (June 1).
- Up to 288 cores per socket, up to 2.5x the performance of the previous generation, 12-channel DDR5, 96 lanes of PCIe Gen 5.
- Positioned as the 'control layer' of AI infrastructure: the CPU is back in the conversation.
The GPU held all the attention. For years. Intel unveiled Xeon 6+ - its first data center processor on the new 18A manufacturing process - and the message is clear: the CPU is back in the AI conversation, right next to the GPU.
I've built infrastructure where all the money went to the star component while the quiet work in the back waited for whatever budget was left. What's interesting here is exactly the positioning. These last few years, the GPU was the star, the CPU was a prop. Intel bets on the reverse: CPU-driven data prep, orchestration, microservice logic (the logic of small, independent program pieces) move back into the picture. Around the GPUs, not instead of them.
'Everything on GPU' was the hoarding phase. Now the weight shifts to distribution - the right work on the right chip. If Intel calls it right, the payoff is a lower power bill and less GPU-time burned on a task the CPU handles for pennies. Whether they call it right - let's see.