The NEX Embedded Xeon Adopts Granite Rapids, New Brand

Discover how Intel’s Granite Rapids D CPUs are reshaping edge computing—delivering higher performance and core counts in the new Xeon 6 SoC series, revealed at ISSCC 2025.

At ISSCC 2025, Intel announced more information about the upcoming Granite Rapids D series of CPUs, part of the Xeon 6 SOC family. The Xeon SOC CPU series (in prior generations, known as Xeon D) is traditionally used in networking or edge applications such as hardware firewalls.

This generation of Xeon SOC CPUs is quite different from the prior generation. It targets a higher power and performance profile than prior Xeon D devices, which were under the purview of Intel’s NEX business unit. Compute capabilities have improved considerably with higher core counts and the shift to more performant Granite Rapids cores, but at a cost of higher thermal design power (TDP).