Qualcomm could also be getting ready for an additional run that the data-center market with a brand new line of Arm-based processors for servers, in accordance Bloomberg.
The corporate is reportedly in search of prospects to check a product from Nuvia, a semiconductor startup it bought final yr that was based by the previous head of Apple CPU improvement.
A spokesperson for Qualcomm mentioned that Qualcomm expects to combine “subsequent technology CPUs throughout a large portfolio of merchandise, together with powering flagship smartphones, laptops, and digital cockpits, in addition to Superior Driver Help Programs, prolonged actuality, and infrastructure networking options.”
Qualcomm has beforehand tried and did not get in on the Arm server market with a processor known as Centriq. It was launched with a lot hoopla in 2017 and discontinued one yr later.
Qualcomm wasn’t alone. There have been a number of Arm-based server processors within the works within the latter a part of the final decade, and just about all of them have fallen by the wayside. That’s as a result of curiosity in Arm stemmed from a want to have an alternative choice to Intel, and in 2016, AMD wasn’t a viable various. Then, AMD CEO Lisa Su waved a magic wand, and an Epyc processor rebirth started. With AMD now a viable various Intel, curiosity within the Arm light out.
Jim McGregor, principal analyst with Tirias Analysis, believes that Qualcomm will use the Nuvia know-how to pursue the endpoints/shopper market of laptops and tablets first, after which it would go after the server market in a couple of years, particularly as a result of Nuvia was centered on servers. “The info middle’s sort of a long-term purpose for them. Nevertheless it’s not the main target proper now. And I would not anticipate one thing instantly,” he mentioned.
McGregor doesn’t assume Qualcomm will place any future data-center processor as an alternative choice to Intel and AMD. “No one I do know ever wished a typical Arm server rather than an x86,” he mentioned.
As an alternative, Arm-based servers can be used for devoted processes equivalent to streaming, transaction processing, or enhancing throughput through data-processing items/sensible NICs.
“It will be a customized CPU core, based mostly on the Nuvia structure.That’s particular. However what they aim with it? I do not know,” McGregor mentioned.
Copyright © 2022 IDG Communications, Inc.
