In addition to collaborating with Ericsson to accelerate the path to 6G, Intel shared some early numbers for the highly anticipated Xeon 6+ (Clearwater Forest), based on the Intel 18A manufacturing process and featuring 288 cores. The CPU is already being tested by Ericsson in packet core environments.
The numbers from February represent a significant milestone, as the chip runs extremely efficiently compared to currently deployed hardware and utilizes the Intel 18A process from Oregon and Arizona fabs. Ericsson is reporting up to a 60% performance-per-watt improvement over the Intel Xeon 6 with E-cores (formerly Sierra Forest) at the platform level.
The primary installed base today features the 2nd Gen Intel Xeon processor (2S6230R, 52 cores) based on the 14nm Cascade Lake architecture. A telecom provider requires 41 servers pulling 16.4 kW of power to handle the base workload. Once a provider updates to the 4th Gen Intel Xeon processor (2S8470N, 104 cores), the situation improves: power consumption drops to 11 kW and the server count drops to 15.
For the 2025/2026 refresh based on the Intel Xeon 6 processor with E-cores (2S6780E, 288 cores) launched last year, the number of servers drops to 11 and power consumption falls to 10.2 kW.
The latest deployment, expected in 2027, based on the Intel Xeon 6+ Clearwater Forest processor (1S6990E+, 288 cores), will further reduce the server count to 9 and power consumption to 6.3 kW.
Telecom Impact
A carrier updating today from Intel Xeon 2nd Gen—the base installation for early 5G systems—will see their server count decrease from 41 to 9, and power consumption drop from 16.4 kW to 6.3 kW.
Ericsson claims that moving from a 2S Intel Xeon 6 with E-cores to a 1S Intel Xeon 6+ results in a 38% reduction in runtime rack power, a 60% gain in performance-per-watt, and 30% greater performance compared to Sierra Forest. This is a massive testament to the advancements of Intel 18A over the Intel 3 process used for Xeon 6 Sierra Forest.
In a 9-server rack deployment (N-1), Intel Xeon 6+ will deliver up to 2.5 Tb/2M IP sessions of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and 1 Tb/8M IP sessions of Mobile Broadband (MBB) traffic. Ericsson states its solution is ready to launch in 2027, as the company is currently refining the firmware and software stack while Intel ships the Xeon 6+ to Ericsson and other partners.
Despite cautious optimism regarding Intel 18A and the impressive performance of the consumer Core Ultra 300 (Panther Lake), the performance of Clearwater Forest Intel Xeon 6+ is even better than expected.
