Semiconductor firm Ampere Computing has shared plans to manufacture its own server chips from next year, particularly for use in data centers for cloud computing platforms.
The relatively new company is already taking the fight to Intel and AMD with its Altra server processors.
However, unlike the Altra, which is based on Arm’s Neoverse N1, Ampere will switch to using its in-house fully custom CPUs in 2022, as per a roadmap shared by the company.
“We selectively optimized the performance of Arm instructions based on their prevalence in data center workloads. And we optimized performance and power for cloud environments, not to meet the needs of cell phones or laptops,” said Ampere’s CTO and chief architect Atiq Bajwa as the company unveiled its roadmap.
Custom core
Even as Ampere claims that developing its optimized chips for server workloads will enable them to offer better performance and power efficiency, Arm, last month, announced the Neoverse V1 as a significant step up for the already-impressive Neoverse N1 chips that power Ampere’s Altra servers.
But Ampere’s announcement isn’t the result of the company’s dissatisfaction with Arm.
AnandTech reports that Ampere always wanted to move towards a full custom microarchitecture core design, and their yet-unnamed custom CPU design that will be fabricated using a 5nm process, has been in the works since the company came into being over three years ago.
Meanwhile, Ampere will continue to focus on its Arm-based servers, which it revelead are used by the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, Tencent, CloudFlare, and others.
As per the roadmap, the 80 cores per socket Ampere Altra is due to get an update, the Ampere Altra Max with up to 128 cores per socket, which is expected to launch later this year.
Via TechCrunch
