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Bloomberg reported that Microsoft has begun designing its own processors for use in cloud systems and Surface computers, reducing reliance on Intel.
Sources told Bloomberg that software and cloud giant Microsoft has begun work on its internal chip designs using ARM architectures. The main target business line to support is the data centers that power Microsoft’s cloud computing systems, including Azure for business and OneDrive for consumers.
Currently, most data centers are powered by Intel’s Xeon series chips built on x86 architecture. While they are powerful, they are expensive. This is due in part to Intel’s dominant position in this market and in part to the increased investment required to make marginal gains in computing power. There is wide recognition in academia and industry that Moore’s Law is slowing down, with some even claiming that its end is in sight. Keeping computational advancements running becomes more expensive and time consuming. Meanwhile, new demand for specialized computing, for example, emerging from the increased deployment of AI, would be better served with chips designed to optimize for special use cases rather than general-purpose solutions.
Another key incentive data center operators see in the ARM architecture is its power consumption advantage. With thousands of servers housed in a data center and dozens of data centers distributed around the world, hyperscalers like Microsoft must consider the total cost when purchasing chips, including computing power, size, power consumption and cooling costs. Small savings at the unit level could translate into large savings overall.
Microsoft hasn’t officially confirmed (or denied) the report, but if it is proven to be true, Microsoft would become the latest of the cloud computing heavyweights to design its own chips. Google started working on its own chips as early as 2017, initially for its Pixel phones, but later rolled out to its cloud infrastructure, with the OpenTitan open-source chip design announced a year ago. Amazon has delivered two generations of its own data center chips, called the Graviton and Graviton2, the first introduced in late 2018 and the second a year later. Alibaba’s Hanguang 800, its own AI-optimized data center processor, was announced in September 2019.
Bloomberg was also told that another initiative had been started at Microsoft to design its own PC chips using the ARM architecture. Microsoft is not the first computer company to do so. Apple has already put its own custom chipset, called the “M1,” into commercial products with its latest line of Mac computers announced in November. This wouldn’t even be Microsoft’s first initiative to move away from over-reliance on the x86 architecture. It has already released Surface computers that use Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets. The latest report, again if proven to be true, would signal a deeper vertical integration that Microsoft is undertaking.
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