Google may start making its own CPU chips
Google is rumoured to be considering the production of its own processor chips for its servers, which would represent a major threat to Intel’s overwhelmingly dominant position.
It may not be quite as immediately interesting a story as the smartphone processor war, but Google’s rumoured move into server CPUs is still big news.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, Google is considering building its own custom server processors using technology from ARM – which currently rules the aforementioned smartphone processor roost. The reason behind such a move would be to “better manage the interactions between hardware and software,” according to the report.
This wouldn’t be a completely outlandish move on the software giant’s part. It already designs the servers that go into its many data centres situated around the globe. This would simply mean taking control of the core component in those custom servers.
The report seems to be partially backed up by the presence of a Digital Design Engineer listing on Google’s job pages.
Of course, this isn’t great news for Intel. The company currently commands 95 percent of the service processor market, and Google is its fifth largest customer. Add in the fact that AMD – which is responsible for the other five percent of server processors – is also switching to ARM technology, and you have a potential shift in the current chip-producing power structure.
It’s perhaps of little surprise, then, that Intel shares dropped by 3.1 percent following this latest report.
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