Doubling Down: Intel’s 8-core Xeon Processor Raises the Performance Bar for Rugged Systems

Published in Military Embedded Systems

In August 2021, Intel announced the new Intel Xeon W-11000E Series processor ­(formerly known as “Tiger Lake-H”), designed for the embedded market. This new processor follows the announcement of similar 11th-generation processors introduced for the commercial market several months earlier.

For designers of rugged commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems, this new processor – which supports critical features for embedded systems, such as DRAM error correction (ECC) and extended operating temperatures – is a great addition to Intel’s range of embedded processors that also offer extended life cycle availability, which is especially important for typically long-life military programs. At the high end of the Xeon W-11000E series is an 8-core device that doubles the core count of previous-generation quad-core processors, making it all the more attractive for embedded virtualized applications.

The Intel Xeon W-11000E provides enterprise-class virtualization with its large core count, the ability to support as much as 128 GB of memory, and its use of Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x, VT-d). The processor’s high core count enables system designers to reduce their platform’s SWaP profile by consolidating multiple independent processing applications onto a single module.

What does this mean for embedded system designers? Processing tasks that formerly required multiple modules or multiple systems can now be consolidated into a single slot. Additionally, the Intel Xeon W-11000E boosts single-thread performance by as much as 32%, increases multithread performance by as much as 65%, and improves graphics performance by as much as 70%.

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