Qualcomm will make ARM chips for servers, the company has confirmed. This puts the processor giant in competition with Intel and AMD, which still dominate the market for server chips.
Qualcomm’s arrival in the server market has been expected for some time, but it is not yet known when Qualcomm’s first server chips will appear.
“It will take some time to build this business, but we think it offers exciting opportunities in the future,” Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said at an analyst meeting in New York. That writes The Wall Street Journal. The CEO did not give details about the chips and release dates. Qualcomm is by far the market leader in the market for ARM chips for smartphones.
By 2020, the server market could generate a turnover of 15 billion dollars, converted 12 billion euros, Mollenkopf told the analysts. Facebook, among others, is said to have already shown interest in the chips. Qualcomm showed a video in which the chief executive of Facebook’s infrastructure division said Qualcomm’s ARM servers will make the social network look again at building its infrastructure.
Qualcomm is not alone in targeting ARM server chips. AMD, among others, develops such chips, in addition to x86 server chips, for which the chip company took over SeaMicro. The market for cheap and energy-efficient server chips is seen as a growth market and the advent of 64-bit ARM chips has accelerated development. On Monday, Cray announced an interest in the chips for use in his supercomputers.