Intel admits mistake! Hyper-Threading officially returns in 2028: Woken up by AMD's 512 threads

according to sources, Intel has officially confirmed that the Coral Rapids server processor, set for release in 2028, will once again support Hyper-Threading Technology (SMT), bringing back the company's signature feature after several years.

In recent years, Intel has taken an extreme approach to Hyper-Threading, abandoning it on Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake, and Panther Lake in succession, and even the upcoming data center processor Diamond Rapids did not retain it. Now, the official announcement of its return can be seen as a timely correction of the previous strategy.

The reason prompting Intel to reconsider the return of Hyper-Threading is very practical: the gap with AMD in multi-threading specifications can no longer be ignored.

The originally planned Diamond Rapids, set for official release in 2027, was to have 192 cores and 192 threads, while AMD's latest EPYC 9006 series already features 256 cores and 512 threads. Not only are core counts lagging, but thread counts are only slightly more than a third of the competitor's.

In server scenarios such as virtualization and high-density computing, which are most hungry for thread count, Intel without Hyper-Threading is essentially voluntarily giving up half the battlefield. Intel CEO Chen Liwu also explicitly stated that competitiveness in both single-thread and multi-thread performance is very important.

As for Coral Rapids itself, Intel has not yet disclosed the manufacturing process. External speculation suggests it could be Intel 14A or an improved version of 18A-PT. It will form part of Intel's server roadmap for the coming years alongside Clearwater Forest and Diamond Rapids.

According to industry leaks, Hyper-Threading may also return to mainstream Core processors through the new Unified Core architecture, with the first debut expected on Titan Lake, following Nova Lake and Razor Lake.

If the leaks are accurate, from servers to consumer products, Hyper-Threading will make a comprehensive return across Intel's entire product line.