Recently, Qualcomm introduced a 48-core server SOC based on the 10nm fabrication process which expected to hit the markets in the second half of 2017.
Qualcomm Brings World’s First 48-Core 10nm Processor
The largest maker of semiconductors for mobile phones said it produced a chip for servers is more advanced than the products of Intel Corp. as the company tries to break the stranglehold of its biggest rival in the Lucrative data center market.
Hence, Qualcomm Inc. goes forward in its project to bring to market an alternative to the dominance of the x86 server market: the new Centriq 2400 is a chip that has 48 cores ARMv8 and manufactured using 10-nanometer production process, and the US company confirmed the having already sent the first sample to its trading partners for testing.
Personalized Falkor based-architecture, constitutes the first wave of the second generation in this class for Qualcomm: also it is the first product to adopt a level of miniaturization, the same one that will be adopted also in the next generation of Qualcomm SoC for smartphones ( the future Snapdragon 835 ). Qualcomm, in any case, has no factories for the production of processors for mobile will turn to Samsung but did not clarify who will carry the new Centriq.
“It’s the first 10-nanometer server processor in the world,” said Anand Chandrasekher, a former Intel executive who runs Qualcomm’s server chips division. “We believe that we are not only the first, but the only ones.”
So, Qualcomm is taking a hard blow to Intel’s most profitable business as it tries to diversify beyond smartphones. This is its first chip for the data center market. The company claims to have surpassed the advantage that Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, has used for more than 30 years to dominate the personal computer and server chip market: more efficient manufacturing.
Typically Intel, which is the main supplier of CPUs for servers with more than 90 percent of the market in his hands, introduces new architecture versions on desktop processors and later also takes them on a server-class processors: in this case, the opposite is occurring.
It is perhaps early to determine that there has been a reversal of priorities in the computing world, but no doubt they are coming unhinged some points that previously characterized this market. But, Intel still remains the clear leader in several sectors, and Qualcomm is just one of the competitors who would like to carve out a place in the sun.
Qualcomm approach aims to simplify certain aspects of focusing CPU server architectures and controllers in a single chip, as well as enticed the big players like Amazon and Google who are always looking for ways to increase efficiency and decrease the complexity of their data centers.
