Intel To Launch A Lower Power Chip For Servers

Intel Corp has announced that it will be launching a low-power version of its server processors in a bid to expand into the data center with energy efficient-chips based on smartphone technology.

At an event on Monday with industry analysts and the media, Intel said it planned to offer a low-power version of the powerful Xeon processor with built-in features that will include connectivity and memory.

Intel are possibly trying to stay ahead of the competition from companies like Advanced Micro Devices, Applied Micro Circuits Corp and other smaller rivals, who are all trying to topple Intel from being the top chipmaker. Rival companies are working on components designed with low-power smartphone techonolgy licensed from ARM Holdings.

“Intel’s announcements demonstrate they will try to defend their turf against ARM-based servers and specialty processors,” said Pat Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “Up until today, it was a bit of a guessing game for Intel that today has at least 95-percent server market share.”

Intel dominates the PC and server markets but has been slow in designing chips for the mobile market. This new announcement shows how CEO Brian Krzanich is willing to make major changes in how the company tackle different markets.

Diane Bryant is in charge of Intel’s data center business, she has said the new component will launch next year and will be based on the upcoming Broadwell version of Intel’s Xeon high-performance chips.

Data centers that combine lots of low-power chips instead of a few heavy-duty processors, will hopefully provide more power but for less money and use less electricity.

Intel are moving to integrate more features like memory and graphics onto its chips. It is known as “system on chips and is already used in smartphones and tablets. The company is also starting to produce “system on chips” for laptops.

[Image via gtvsource]

SOURCE: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/22/us-intel-servers-idUKBRE96L0P020130722