Qualcomm Centriq features up to 48 64-bit ARMv8 cores — and is much cheaper than Intel, according to Microsoft,Software,Operating Systems,Hardware,Server,Chips and Components ,Cloud Computing,cloud summit,Microsoft,Qualcomm
Intel is facing a two-pronged assault on its data centre dominance after Microsoft showed off a port of Windows Server running on Qualcomm ARM-based hardware.
However, at the moment, the combination is only being used internally at Microsoft, according to Qualcomm, to power Azure cloud instances, and there’s no word on wider availability yet.
It comes just days after AMD showed off multi-core server microprocessors, code-named ‘Naples’ based on its new Zen-based architecture. AMD claimed that the new parts could offer server makers performance two-and-a-half times that of $5,000 Intel Xeon equivalents.
The Microsoft/Qualcomm ‘alliance’ will attack Intel’s dominance from the other end of the server market. Microsoft is running Windows Server on Qualcomm’s 64-bit, 10nm Centriq 2400 system.
The announcement is a big deal with current editions of Windows Server only supported on systems with x86 chips from Intel and AMD, although Microsoft’s Windows 10 IoT and Mobile platforms already work on ARM processors.
Qualcomm has developed special Windows Server hardware based on its Centriq 2400 processor, which offers 48 ARMv8-compliant cores targeting compute-intensive data centre applications that require power efficiency and is built on the 10nm FinFET manufacturing process.
