Arm turns up the heat in the fight for the data center

Arm
(Image credit: Arm)

Arm has lifted the lid on a new generation of Neoverse cores designed to deliver maximal performance and power efficiency in the data center.

The new flagship core, Neoverse V2 (codenamed Demeter), is said to offer “market-leading integer performance” across cloud and HPC workloads, in addition to advances in hardware-based security.

Neoverse V2 will feature imminently inside the hotly anticipated 72-core Grace CPU from Nvidia, which explained it selected the new Arm platform for its unrivalled performance-per-watt.

Arm in the data center

In years gone by, Arm-based processors have been found predominantly in smartphones and IoT devices, because of the strong power consumption to performance ratio they deliver. Meanwhile, the server and workstation market has been dominated by Intel’s x86 architecture.

However, Arm has recently begun to muscle its way into the datacenter with its Neoverse platform, which now underpins a host of performance-centric chips, catering to use cases across cloud, HPC and the edge.

Cloud vendors like AWS and Alibaba have also discovered the performance advantages of developing their own bespoke Arm-based silicon, instead of leaning solely on Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC CPUs. There is evidence to suggest companies like Microsoft and Meta will soon follow suit.

The latest data from Omdia shows Arm-based CPUs are currently found in roughly 5% of servers, but the company expects to make significant headway in the coming years as heavy investment begins to bear fruit.

“The demand for data is insatiable, from 5G to the cloud to smart cities. As a society we want more autonomy, information to fuel our decisions and habits, and connection – to people, stories, and experiences,” said Arm.

“To address these demands, the cloud infrastructure of tomorrow will need to handle the coming data explosion and the effective processing of ever more complex workloads…all while increasing power efficiency and minimizing carbon footprint. It’s why the industry is increasingly looking to the performance, power efficiency, specialized processing and workload acceleration enabled by Arm Neoverse to redefine and transform the world’s computing infrastructure.”

The company was also eager to emphasize the broad software support for Arm-based silicon, a factor that previously may have counter against the company’s platforms. Arm has promised to continue to work with partners to optimize cloud-native software, frameworks and workloads.

“No other technology provider offers the combination of speed, breadth and technology innovation that empower our robust ecosystem of partners and developers to move fast and build the systems of tomorrow,” said the firm.

Joel Khalili
News and Features Editor

Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He's responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.