Intel Says Power-Efficient Sierra Forest Chip Will Be Delivered in H1 2024

Intel's logo is pictured during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 19, 2017. (Reuters)
Intel's logo is pictured during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 19, 2017. (Reuters)
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Intel Says Power-Efficient Sierra Forest Chip Will Be Delivered in H1 2024

Intel's logo is pictured during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 19, 2017. (Reuters)
Intel's logo is pictured during preparations at the CeBit computer fair, which will open its doors to the public on March 20, at the fairground in Hanover, Germany, March 19, 2017. (Reuters)

US chip giant Intel Corp said on Wednesday its first semiconductor for data center customers focused on power efficiency, Sierra Forest, would be delivered in the first half of next year, as it outlined a chip release schedule after prior delays.

"It's been a challenging few years as we had introduced a lot of innovation but also a lot of complexity and our product release dates had pushed out," Intel Data Center and AI Group head Sandra Rivera told Reuters ahead of an investor event.

Intel still dominates the markets for PC and server processing chips, with a market share greater than 70%, tech research firm IDC has calculated. But that is down from more than 90% in 2017.

Intel's most powerful fourth-generation Xeon processor for data centers, Sapphire Rapids, had faced delays that gave competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc time to catch up. But Rivera said Intel's "roadmap is on track" and was "hitting all of our key engineering milestones".

She added the fifth-generation Xeon processor, Emerald Rapids, was on track to be delivered at the end of this year and the next-generation Granite Rapids, which customers are testing now, would be delivered next year after the release of Sierra Forest.

Intel said the next power-efficient chip, Clearwater Forest, would come to market in 2025.

Rivera said that Intel was also working on building the Intel Developer Cloud with 256 Xeon chips and 512 Gaudi chips for artificial intelligence (AI) that would be available for AI developers to train and run new models. She said AI startups Hugging Face and Stable Diffusion were already using Intel chips.



Meta’s Content Moderation Contractor to Cut 2,000 Jobs in Barcelona

The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. (Reuters)
The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. (Reuters)
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Meta’s Content Moderation Contractor to Cut 2,000 Jobs in Barcelona

The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. (Reuters)
The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. (Reuters)

Canadian-based tech company Telus sent home as many as 2,000 people from its content moderation center in Barcelona after Facebook owner Meta Platforms severed its contract, local unions CCOO and UGT said.

The company - operating locally as CCC Barcelona Digital Services - emailed its workers on Thursday placing them on gardening leave saying a client warned on April 1 it would suspended services.

The email, which Reuters had access to, did not specify who the client was, but UGT and CCOO said Telus' client was Meta.

One former and one current employee, who requested anonymity as they signed non-disclosure agreements, said the team was moderating content for Meta.

"Our clients are diversifying their presence and transferring their services to other locations," Telus said, adding the contract continued. The company will provide support to all the affected team members during negotiations with the unions.

A Meta spokesperson said the company has moved the services that were being performed from Barcelona to other locations and the company is not reducing its content review efforts.

Meta invested billions and hired thousands of content moderators globally over the years to police sensitive content, but in January it scrapped its US fact-checking program, following the election of President Donald Trump.

It also said it will stop proactively scanning for hate speech and other types of rule-breaking, reviewing such posts only in response to user reports.

Employees were placed on leave, with full salaries but no work to carry out, while Telus negotiates severance with unions, the email sent to workers said.

The company suspended its operations at noon on Thursday and asked employees at work to leave the office, located in Barcelona's landmark Glories tower downtown.

The team in Barcelona included content moderation services in Catalan, Dutch, French, Hebrew, Portuguese and Spanish, according to the former employee.

Other content moderation centers in countries such as Bulgaria, Colombia and Portugal that used to collaborate with the staff in Barcelona, the current employee said, although a Telus spokesperson said some of these centers are run by other companies.