Intel's XPU Product Development From FalconShores to 2027 Release

TapTechNews August 1st news, Hungarian media PROHARDVER! indicated that Intel is still internally developing data center XPU products and currently seems likely to be released in 2027.

TapTechNews first sorts out the ins and outs of the original FalconShores processor that was expected to be Intel's first XPU product:

Intel announced the initial version of the FalconShores design in 2022. In Intel's vision at that time, this XPU would accommodate x86 CPU and Xe GPU in a single socket, with more than 5 times the performance per watt, computing density, memory capacity and bandwidth compared to products at that time.

In 2023, Intel first announced in March to adjust the product line planning of data center GPU, classify FalconShores into the sequence of data center GPU Max and postpone it to 2025, and first launch the pure GPU version.

After that, Intel also confirmed in May 2023 that FalconShores would be positioned as an AI GPU, as the common successor of Ponte Vecchio data center GPU Max and Gaudi3 artificial intelligence accelerator, and abandon the version with CPU.

Intel said when explaining this change that as the workload of the data center evolves, the optimal ratio of CPU and GPU has also changed, and XPU can only provide a specific fixed ratio of CPU and GPU, and XPU has not yet come to the right time to be launched.

The Hungarian media claimed in the report that the XPU version of FalconShores has not encountered problems in the development and the sample works normally. The core reason for being abandoned is that its CPU module has poor performance and high power consumption, and it cannot compete with similar products such as AMD's Instinct MI300A.

And Intel's real XPU product in the future is still in the development process, and currently seems likely to be released in 2027. Compared to the XPU version of FalconShores, the new generation of XPU has made major modifications to the CPU module and introduced a new CPU design that conforms to the 2027 release plan.

And for the FalconShores2 chip mentioned by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger previously, the report said that this product planned to be launched in 2026 is only a minor modification of the AIGPU version of FalconShores.