Cisco announced the expansion of its Unified Computing System (UCS) portfolio today that adds new rack servers and modular compute nodes powered by Intel’s 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processors.

Intel today introduced its latest data center chip — Sapphire Rapids. The chip maker touted the performance improvements supporting artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, high-performance computing (HPC), security, networking, analytics, and storage.

Powered by this new chip, Cisco’s new 7th Gen UCS X-Series and C-Series servers are designed to modernize the compute infrastructure for data centers with sustainability benefits, the vendor boasted.

The new addition to the UCS portfolio includes two-socket 1RU/2RU rack servers and two- and four-socket X-Series modular compute nodes. Additionally, Cisco aims to deliver application acceleration by supporting the Intel Data Center GPU Flex Series in its UCS X-Series Fabric technology.

“The ability to support 2-socket and 4-socket, M6 and M7 generation compute nodes, and a variety of GPUs in PCIe nodes all in the same chassis is a proof point that the flexibility of the UCS X-Series modular design offers tremendous investment protection,” Dhritiman Dasgupta, VP of product management for the Cisco Cloud and Compute team, wrote in a blog post. “This flexibility enables UCS to support advanced technologies such as DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Compute Express Link 1.1 (CXL), and now the Intel Data Center GPU Flex Series.”

Cisco claims the new servers can reduce the number of systems compared to previous generation UCS servers with up to a 4-to-1 consolidation ratio, while supporting newer types of workloads. This delivers up to 64% better performance and 31% lower power consumption through reducing components, devices, and cabling needed with the new UCS X-Series Fabric architecture, and offers better sustainability management through Cisco Intersight, which provides customers with global control of sustainability policies.

The networking giant has been tapping Intel’s chips for its UCS portfolio since 2009. The company unveiled its M6 servers and UCS X-Series in 2021 featuring 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, also known as the Ice Lake CPUs.

Cisco plans to roll out the new UCS C-Series and X-Series servers starting in February.