NVIDIA DGX H100 導入 Intel Sapphire Rapids 處理器，但另一邊似乎傳出不好的聲音…
NVIDIA 創辦人黃仁勳才剛剛強調 NVIDIA DGX H100 將從 AMD EPYC 處理器轉換到 Intel Sapphire Rapids 處理器，但同樣一場活動上，Intel Data Center and AI 總經理、資深副總裁 Sandra Rivera 證實 Sapphire Rapids 處理器產能不如預期般順利。
At this point we are building in more platform and product validation time, so we see Sapphire, you know the ramp being later in the year than what we had originally forecasted, but the demand is still very high. [..]
One thing I didn’t mention on Sapphire, it sits on – it’s on our 7-nanometer node and so the process is quite healthy. In fact Alder Lake, which is our client product ramped 15 million units. I think we announced at Q1 earnings, which makes that the fastest ramping, you know one of the fastest ramping client products in almost a decade.
So the process is healthy, the capacity picture is good, but you know we’ve got some of these other issues that we’re dealing with and customers on that match that issue still working through that.
— Sandra Rivera, Executive Vice President, General Manager, Datacenter and AI Group at Intel
Sapphire Rapids 使用的是 Intel 7 製程，但這製程顯然對這個處理器不太友善，因為這已經不是第一次傳出 Sapphire Rapids 推遲的訊息。會提出這樣的說法，當然不單單是因為 Sapphire Rapids 推遲，更是因為同樣為 Intel 7 製程、代號 Alder Lake 的 Intel 第 12 代 Core 系列處理器現階段已經出貨超過 1,500 萬顆，這是過去 10 年 Intel 出貨最快的一項紀錄。
透過 Sandra Rivera 的說法，我們可以解讀為 Intel 7 製程是沒有任何問題，但 Sapphire Rapids 還有一些問題需要解決方能安心出貨給合作夥伴。
Sapphire Rapids 之後會由 Emerald Rapids 預計在 2023 下半年接替；Emerald Rapids 與 Sapphire Rapdis 同為 LGA 4677 腳位，並且會繼續使用 Intel 7 製程。
Intel 台灣公關團隊在 6 月 9 日一早更新了公司聲明，該聲明內容與 Sandra Rivera 在 BORA 20221 發表的內容沒有太大出入：
Sapphire Rapids brings to the industry many new leadership innovations that are driven by rapidly evolving industry requirements. In an effort to deliver these unique, high-quality solutions to customers and meet their expectations, we are building in additional validation time. We expect to ramp Sapphire Rapids later in the year.
中文翻譯：Sapphire Rapids 為業界帶來了不少創新與改變，而這些都是快速發展的產業所需。Intel 為了能提供客戶更高品質的解決方案，並滿足他們的期望，因此增加了驗證流程所需要的時間。我們預計在 2022 年稍晚，加速 Sapphire Rapids 處理器的產能。