Side-channel attacks are designed to gather external information from the processor such as power states, emissions and wait times in the attempt to infer data activity and values.[f:As of August 2020, hundreds of research papers have referenced Intel SGX.]
Hackers typically follow the path of least resistance. Today, that usually means attacking software. While Intel SGX is not specifically designed to protect against side channel attacks, it provides a form of isolation for code and data that raises the bar for attackers.