Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has long confined itself to work on x86 architecture only, shying away from other chip designs. However, the company has now revealed plans of licensing 64-bit processor design from ARM to start producing server chips by 2014.
This is a very significant move for AMD since it can open up a new market for AMD’s chips. AMD intends to roll out the 64-bit Opteron processors based on the design it licenses from ARM which, it believes, can be a perfect solution for the servers being used in huge data centers.
Although it’s hard to predict how successful this new move by AMD may turn out to be, what is certain is that this would enhance the profile of the company. It will also lend it a technological edge over Intel when it comes to server-side processors.
An industry analyst commented, “I really think this raises ARM’s server credibility, and the credibility of microservers as a segment.” The new ARM-based chips will be marketed by AMD alongside its own x86-based processors.
The company is apparently focusing data centers as a potential market for its ARM-based processors. According to the senior vice president and general manager at AMD, Lisa Su, “The data center is being inundated with massive amounts of data and there has to be a way to do it more efficiently in a smaller space with a lower cost point. The fabric technology is the secret sauce; this is what will make AMD’s server solution different from other vendors.”
Courtesy: Tech World
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Here’s hoping for an 8 Core ARM desktop CPU and a 4 Core ARM tablet CPU from AMD that will both run Windows 7 and Windows 8 Pro (not RT)