Intel postponed the launch of a new generation Xeon and canceled the Falcon Shores accelerators, but the consumer Panther Lake will come out on time

In the framework of the quarterly reporting conference, Intel announced the transfer of the start of the supply of Xeon Clearwater Forest processors for data processing centers for the first half of 2026. The company also stated that the Falcon Shores explosors will not be launched on the market, but will serve for tests in the development of the successor, under the code name Jaguar Shores. At the same time, Intel confirmed that the supply of Panther Lake chips for client PCs will begin according to the plan in the second half of 2025.

The delay in the release of the key server processor with the code name Clearwater Forest occurred against the background of the company disclosure by depressing financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024 and all year as a whole. In combination with Intel announced by the cancellation of the Falcon Shores accelerators, the competitive position of Intel in the rapidly growing market of AI weakened even more.

Currently, Intel is increasing the production of its energy -efficient processors Xeon 6 Sierra Forest and high -performance Xeon 6 Granite Rapids processors. The company expects these processors will help to stabilize its market share this year. The next generation of the next generation of the Xeon 7 Clearwater Forest and Xeon 7 Diamond Rapids, according to Intel, should turn the course of events and return the company to the lost market share.

«We also achieve good progress in the work on Clearwater Forest, our first server product on Intel 18A, which we plan to release in the first half of next year, ”said Intel, Michelle Johnston Holthaus. She confirmed the difficulties with Clearwater Forest packaging technology, while assuring that the implementation of the 18A process process goes according to plan.

Image source: Intel

Clearwater Forest means a lot for Intel, since this is the first processor for data processing centers with computing chiplets manufactured according to the Intel 18A (class 1.8 nm class) and Poveros 3D technology. If the company can achieve a massly and economically effective release of Clearwater Forest, this will become a serious evidence of 18A’s success, which can attract potential customers to the contract production of Intel Foundry.

At the moment, Intel is optimistic at 18a. “18A is a field of good progress,” said Intel, the financial director of David Zinsner. “As in any new process, there were ups and falls along this path, but in general we are sure that we provide a competitive process.”

As for the Falcon Shores graphic processor, designed for the working loads, the Intel representative advised analysts and investors to modify his expectations, since the Falcon Shores will mainly serve as a test chip when developing a hardware and software ecosystem of the following generations of hybrid processors, in particular, for its successor for its successor The code name Jaguar shores. The company was forced to make such a decision as a result of the failure of the Intel Gaudi 3 processor, which could not compete with AMD and NVIDIA solutions. In this situation, the launch of another unsuccessful product can potentially bury the company’s reputation into the commercial operation.

«Many of you heard how I remembered the expectations for Falcon Shores last month, Holthouse noted during the company’s income report on Thursday. – Based on the reviews of the industry, we decided to use Falcon Shores as an internal test chip. Without bringing it to the market, we will support our efforts to develop a system solution on the scale of the rack with Jaguar Shores for a wider coverage of the AI ​​processing center. ”

Falcon Shores is the first Intel graphic processor with a multi-chip design based on XE-HPC or XE3-HPC nuclei. It is designed to maintain high parallel workloads and high -performance calculations. The product should significantly increase productivity and energy efficiency, although the company abstained from the provision of actual numbers.

The delay in the release of Clearwater Forest processors and the cancellation of the mass production of graphic accelerators of Falcon Shores can be very expensive for Intel, which has serious difficulties and continues to lose the confidence of investors.