Intel's new 'Johnson City' platform supports next-gen Xeon 'Diamond Rapids' CPUs with 650W TDP

Intel's next-generation Xeon "Diamond Rapids" CPUs will be supported on its next-gen "Johnson City" reference platform, spotted inside of a new NBD shipping manifest.

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The shipment log teases the "JNC" server board hardware with a label of "Validation Material", with JNC standing for Johnson City, a reference platform being used by Intel and its partners to test performance, capabilities, and features of the next-gen Xeon "Diamond Rapids" processors on next-gen platforms.

We don't know much from these new details other than two listings referring to "1SPC 500 DMR" which could be a 500W TDP range for Diamond Rapids CPUs, while the other lists a higher 650W TDP. In a separate listing, the JNC Multi-S platform is teased, numbered "2+1+1S" with 1S referring to a single-socket setup, but it could easily be a label for a multi-socket, or even multi-chiplet Diamond Rapids configuration.

Intel's next-gen Xeon "Diamond Rapids" CPUs will feature up to 192 cores, while some rumors from the past few months have teased an even bigger 256 cores, but Intel hasn't confirmed any of this just yet. What we do know, is that Intel will be fabbing its new Xeon CPUs in-house on its new Intel 18A process node, and that the new Diamond Rapids chips will feature upgraded Panther Cove P-Cores.

We should see the new Xeon "Diamond Rapids" CPUs slotting into a gigantic LGA 9324 socket, which is close to 5x bigger than the desktop-focused LGA 1700 socket. Even the upcoming Xeon "Granite Rapids" CPUs will be arriving on the LGA 7529 socket, but the LGA 9324 socket for Diamond Rapids is a massive beast of a socket.