Amazon Develops More Powerful, Arm-based Chip: report
Amazon.com Inc’s cloud computing unit has designed a more powerful data center processor chip based on ARM's Neoverse N1 technology, Reuters reports.
The report claims that the new chip could have 32 cores and will be at least 20% faster than Amazon’s first Arm-based chip, named Graviton, which was released last year as a low-cost option for easier computing tasks. The new chip will also use a a “fabric” that will allow it to connect with other chips to speed up tasks like image recognition.
Both Arm and Amazon declined to comment.
Intel controls more than 90% of the server processor market, with AMD controlling most of the remainder. Intel’s data center group generated almost of half of the company’s overall operating profit last year. Most server chips go to the cloud.
Chip designers use Arm technology want to challenge Intel’s dominance. Low-power Arm chips are typically powering smartphones but can be also used for servers. Intel’s most powerful chips can cost several thousand dollars, while barebones Arm-based server chips can cost less than $1,000.
However, Amazon.com's new server chip is not expected to be as powerful as Intel’s “Cascade Lake” or AMD’s “Rome” chips.