A few months ago, we saw the new Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids platform running at SC21. We expect these platforms to hit GA in the second half of 2022. What is very interesting then is that Intel has launched its Emmitsburg chipset, the successor to the Lewisburg (Skylake/ Cascade Lake)/ Lewisburg Refresh (Cooper Lake/ Ice Lake) PCH’s that we have seen since 2017, this quarter.
Intel C741 Emmitsburg Chipset with PCIe Gen3 for Sapphire Rapids Launched
If you missed the SC21 piece, check out Intel Sapphire Rapids CXL with Emmitsburg PCH Shown at SC21. Now, we see that the Intel C741 chipset has hit Intel Ark with a Q1 2022 launch date.
Also interesting is that the TDP is 11W. Intel is still using a PCH design in its servers, whereas we are seeing Arm vendors and AMD go PCH-less. That means, from a platform perspective, there is another chip to place and cool.
What we can see is that the Intel C741 has up to 20 PCIe Gen3 lanes. This is notable since PCIe Gen5 is a major Sapphire Rapids feature. Along with up to 14 USB ports, there are also up to 20 SATA III ports. The 20 PCIe Gen3 lanes, along with the matching number of SATA lanes makes us think that Intel is using its flexible I/O offering here so realistically we will see a mix of both.
There are a number of other features including VT-d, RSTe, Node Manger, at TXT supported. Notable though is that although we have an integrated LAN and HD audio, we do not get QAT in this PCH. This is a 22x23mm PCH listed as using FC-BGA15C.
Final Words
The new Intel C741 Emmitsburg PCH is one we expect to see later in 2022 and into 2023, but for now, unless you work in the industry and have pre-GA silicon, it is unlikely you are going to see this chip for a few months. The ordering code for the B1 stepping is GGNOCPU05016100 and the spec code is SRLGE. For many STH readers, this is going to be another step in the long process of launching the new Sapphire Rapids solutions that will have small bits of information come out over time and before GA. If you want to see more of the Eagle Stream platform, again check out some of our Q4 2021 coverage like the SC21 piece linked above and the Flex Bodega Bay First Look at an Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids System.
Funny: With Cooper/Ice Lake Intel barely bothered to slap a “A” to the C621 chipset. Now Intel is skipping 630, 640, 650… and jumping all the way to 740.
Of course, Intel numbering is meant to CONFUSE the customer, not to help understand and navigate the stack.
I’m wondering why QAT wasn’t made available for this chipset; you’d think that it’s hardly a differentiating feature, yet if it really was special, then removing it from a chipset then makes it a whole lot less useful.
So either Intel thinks it’s a big deal that you must pay extra for while nobody cares, or this chipset will simply never go beyond desktop usage. (and even then, no QAT when you run high speed networking and desktop virtualisation seems like a waste… maybe this is just a ‘binned’ PCH where QAT was broken and is now fused off?)
John, 621/622/624 all don’t have it either.
Since this is 741, it’s the base model chipset.
I’d be looking for 747/749 if the naming convention holds at all.
Also intel offers dedicated accelerator cards for QAT as well, since a huge number of Xeon customers don’t even know what QAT is.