Intel’s Jaguar Shores Unveils: The Ultimate AI Powerhouse Merging Gaudi ASICs & Xe-HPC GPUs!

While the tech community eagerly awaits Intel’s release of its upcoming next-generation Gaudi 3 ASICs and subsequently Falcon Shores, now delayed until 2025; Intel has already announced Jaguar Shores as the forthcoming successor, according to HPCwire. It remains unclear whether Jaguar Shores will integrate CPU and GPU on a single platform, a concept originally intended for Falcon Shores.

During a technical session at the SC2024 conference, Intel’s Habana Labs division—likely inadvertently—disclosed the Jaguar Shores codename. When pressed for additional information, Intel declined to comment, which is typical as the details are probably still under wraps.

For those not familiar, Intel’s current product array features specialized ASICs known as “Gaudi.” The third version, Gaudi 3, has been postponed to 2025, positioning it as a competitor to Nvidia’s previous generation Hopper-based H100. Intel’s HPC and AI GPUs currently include Ponte Vecchio, which powers the third fastest supercomputer in the world, Aurora.

Intel initially planned to merge these technologies into a combined CPU and GPU architecture dubbed “Falcon Shores.” However, this has been scrapped, and Falcon Shores will now be launched solely as a GPU by the end of 2025. Given these changes, the architectural direction of the upcoming Jaguar Shores remains largely speculative.

Jaguar Shores is expected to be a General-Purpose GPU (GPGPU), similar to Nvidia’s B100, B200, and B300 series, and manufactured using an Angstrom-grade process node (Intel 18A/14A). Last year, HPCwire hinted that Intel teased a successor to Falcon Shores, aiming for a 2026 release. The question remains whether it can hold its ground against Nvidia’s upcoming Rubin chips.

Truthfully, Intel’s AI accelerators haven’t matched up to AMD and Nvidia, and the company’s future in AI appears challenging. Data centers continue to be crucial to Intel’s revenue. This has likely influenced their decision to hold back on an X3D-like server cache, despite Intel Foundry’s capability to produce it for a broader market. However, not everything is grim. The upcoming Granite Rapids CPUs, boasting over 128 cores, indicate a possible revival for Intel in the server and workstation markets.