Introduction and Architecture Intel is today announcing a significant update to its datacentre portfolio. Built on the pillars of moving data faster, storing more and processing everything, there are new SSDs, Optane Memory, Ethernet, FPGAs and, of course, Xeon CPUs. The very fact that focus is not wholly on a new slew of 3rd Generations Xeons is telling in itself. Intel sees the portfolio's hardware launches as synergistic - more than the sum of the parts - and Xeon CPUs have only an equal standing in this line of thinking. Yet Intel launching a host of Xeon processors armed with a raft of improvements is a big deal in this segment, particularly as the release comes hot on the heels of AMD launching its fastest-ever 3rd Gen Epyc processors. We can finally compare one company's best against the other.