Intel Woos Internet Heavyweights With New, Flexible Server Chips

Advertisement
By Reuters | Updated: 19 June 2014 09:10 IST
Intel Woos Internet Heavyweights With New, Flexible Server Chips
Intel Corp is taking a new approach to the powerful server chips it sells to Internet heavyweights like Facebook and Google.

The Santa Clara, California company is integrating its Xeon processors with programmable chips that will give customers with unique technical requirements more flexibility to optimize their servers.

(Also see: Intel launches new Atom chip for microservers, gets Facebook nod)

With a stagnant PC industry and little progress in smartphones and tablets, selling high-end server chips is an increasingly important source of profits for Intel.

Most servers are made with off-the-shelf Intel Xeon chips, but last year Intel manufactured about 15 customized versions of those processors to meet the particular needs of high-end customers like eBay and Facebook.

Advertisement

It plans to manufacture over 30 customized chips this year, Diane Bryant, who leads Intel's data center division, told reporters at a briefing this week.

The technology Bryant announced at an event Wednesday goes a step further, letting data center operators customize the chips themselves, as often as they want.

Advertisement

Intel dominates the server market but it faces a new source of competition as rivals prepare low-power processors based on technology from ARM Holdings.

The new component integrates a standard Xeon processor and a chip known as a field-programmable gate array, or FPGA. Customers can configure the chips as needed to make servers faster at handling proprietary tasks, like providing web-search results or updating social networks.

Advertisement

"If they have an application that spends a lot of time on a particular algorithm, they can take that algorithm, take the soft (intellectual property), and load it into the FPGA and accelerate that workload," Bryant said.

Intel already sells server products that combine Xeon chips and programmable chips but on the new component they will be much more closely integrated, resulting in up to double the performance, Bryant said.

She declined to say when Intel would sell the new product, how much they would cost or what company would supply the programmable chip, a technology distinct from Intel's focus on processors.

Programmable chips are typically used by manufacturers making small quantities of products or prototypes that do not warrant the expense of designing a new chip from the ground up. On Wall Street they are used to run complex financial simulations.

Microsoft has already been experimenting with using programmable chips to help power its Bing web search engine.

Intel announced in March it was expanding its existing contract manufacturing relationship with programmable chipmaker Altera to develop future components that combine different kinds of chips. Bryant said that arrangement was unrelated to the upcoming Xeon offering.

© Thomson Reuters 2014

 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Advertisement
Popular Mobile Brands
  1. OnePlus 13s Launched in India: Know Price, Specifications and More
  2. OnePlus 13s Review
  3. Poco F7 Launch Timeline, Key Specifications Leaked Ahead of Debut
  4. Best Smartphones Under Rs 25,000 in India: Check List
  5. OnePlus Pad 3 With 12,140mAh Battery Launched in India: Check Features
  6. Stolen Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video: What You Need to Know
  1. OnePlus Pad 3 With Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, 12,140mAh Battery Launched in India: Specifications
  2. Nintendo Switch 2 Launches With 7.9-Inch LCD Display, Joy-Con 2 Controllers
  3. Pixel 10 Series Colour Options Tipped; Google Could Drop Iconic Hues
  4. Tecno Pova Curve 5G Goes on Sale in India for the First Time Today: Price, Sale Offers, Specifications
  5. OpenAI Brings ChatGPT Record Mode on MacOS, Adds Tool to Connect to Gmail and Outlook
  6. Truecaller Crosses 3 Million Paying Subscribers Globally; 16 Percent Growth in iOS Users
  7. Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1.1 With Bug Fixes Rolling Out for Pixel Devices: All Details
  8. One of Them Days Now Available on Netflix: Everything You Need to Know
  9. Our Fault OTT Release Date: When and Where to Watch Final Chapter of Culpables Online?
  10. Stolen Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video: What You Need to Know About its Cast, Plot, and more
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.