The new chips will be able to support up to 12-channel DDR5 memory with speeds of up to 8000 MT/s, a substantial increase over the 8 channels of 6400MT/s in the prior generation. In addition to that, the platform will support up to 6 UPI 2.0 links with up to 24 GT/s per lane, up to 96 PCIe Gen5.0 lanes, and up to 64 CXL 2.0 lanes.
Other features include Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) and Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) for enhanced security. On the power management side, these chips will carry Intel Application Energy Telemetry (AET) and Intel Turbo Rate Limiter. Finally, Clearwater Forest CPUs will get Advanced Vector Extensions 2 with VNNI and INT8 support.
If you have already invested in Sierra Forest servers, good news; Clearwater Forest is socket-compatible with the prior generation, so you can upgrade your servers with just a chip swap and BIOS flash. “The number one feedback we got rom OEMs was we don’t want to do a new server. We want it to be socket compatible with the servers we’ve already deployed,” said Boyko.
Clearwater Forest processors will be available in the first half of 2026.
