#Intel tick tock release upgrade#
#Intel tick tock release license#

This has led to a very noticeable reduction in generational performance increases since Broadwell-EP, as shown in Figure 1. Intel officially moved on to what they call “ Process- Architecture-Optimization (PAO)” in early 2016. Intel has been stuck at 14nm in the server space since the Broadwell release in Q4 of 2016. The Tick-Tock release cycle basically fell apart by about 2015, as Intel was unable to move from a 14nm manufacturing process to a 10nm manufacturing process.

#Intel tick tock release upgrade#

This made it easier for database professionals to make the case for a hardware upgrade, and made the typical upgrade more worthwhile. This created a predictable release cadence, and also delivered significant performance gains and other improvements with each release, especially Tock releases. One year after a Tock release Intel would take that same microarchitecture (with some minor improvements), and use a shrink of the manufacturing process to create a Tick release. So, what has changed my mind?įrom 2007 until 2016, Intel was able to successfully execute their Tick-Tock release strategy, where they would introduce a new processor microarchitecture roughly every two years (a Tock release). Now, I am advising people to strongly consider AMD for SQL Server workloads as the AMD EPYC “Rome” processors are released in Q3 of 2019.

#Intel tick tock release license#

The previous AMD EPYC “Naples” processors have “primed the pump” in the server space, and the major server vendors are now much more receptive to AMD.įor many years, I explicitly advised people not to run their SQL Server workloads on AMD hardware because of the much lower single-threaded CPU performance and consequently higher SQL Server core license costs. By significant market share, I am talking in the 10-15% range during that time period. However, I am firmly convinced that Intel will lose significant market share during the next 12-18 months after the release of the upcoming 7nm AMD EPYC “Rome” server processors.

A close monitoring of the hardware enthusiast community, including many of the most respected hardware analysts and reviewers paints an even more dire picture about Intel in the server processor space.ĭespite all of this, Intel is not going to lose their entire server processor business any time soon. If you have been paying attention to the technology press over the past 12-18 months, you may have noticed a rather large number of negative stories about Intel’s processor business.