During the Hot Chips 2025 conference, Intel unveiled detailed specifications of its forthcoming Xeon Clearwater Forest processor, marking the first time the company has publicly discussed the inclusion of small E-cores in this next-generation lineup. Previously, leaks had revealed details about the Xeon Diamond Rapids, featuring large P-cores and utilizing Intel's cutting-edge 18A process (comparable to 1.8nm technology). The Diamond Rapids boasts up to 192 cores, 384 threads (a 50% increase), 8 or 16 memory channels, support for 12.8GHz MRDIMM memory, integration of the APX (Advanced Performance eXtensions) instruction set, native compatibility with TF32 and FP8 data formats, support for the PCIe 6.0 standard, a maximum power consumption of 500W, and a transition to the LGA9324 socket.

The Clearwater Forest processor, similarly leveraging the advanced 18A process, is designed to further optimize energy efficiency and performance. With 288 small E-cores and a whopping 576MB of L3 cache, Intel aims to cater to diverse workloads and provide a robust platform for data centers and high-performance computing environments.