AMD forces Intel to narrow its Cooper Lake Xeon lineup, even as 10nm woes put Ice Lake Xeon in question

Intel recently shared a startling revelation: it will be “narrowing” its Cooper Lake 14nm Xeon lineup by cancelling upcoming Cooper Lake implementations on its next-gen Whitley platform. This is the strongest indication yet that AMD’s Ryze(n) is limited not just to the consumer market, but that it has made EPYC gains in the server segment as well, Intel’s all-important cash cow. 

In a note to ServeTheHome, Intel clarified that, while its 14nm Cooper Lake products are set to arrive in 2020, they will be limited to the older, 4-socket Cedar Island platform, and not the next-gen Whitley platform. As early as 2018, Intel’s game plan had been to launch Cooper Lake on Cedar Island, then introduce Whitley to the market with a Cooper Lake refresh that would precede its Ice Lake server line. This scenario appears to have changed. Cooper Lake will not make it to Whitley. Instead, Intel claims that it’ll launch Ice Lake server parts by the years’ end, running on Whitley. 

The sudden decision to axe Cooper Lake Whitley parts seems to have been influenced by AMD’s upcoming EPYC Milan and EPYC Genoa server parts, which will deliver IPC gains and power efficiency thanks to the 7nm process. Our concern, however, is whether or not Intel will actually deliver 10nm Ice Lake server parts in volume, considering their documented struggles on that process node.