Can server market novice Qualcomm create history again?

Qualcomm topped the ARM processor server SoC vendor and announced that it can provide a sample of 48 core chips for the 10 nm FinFET process. The problem is that the market, which claims to be a multi-billion dollar business opportunity, has yet to start. I can really start to get attention.

By using advanced process technology to enter a new market, Anand Chandrasekher, general manager of Qualcomm's data center business group, is learning from his old Intel (Intel), optimistic that the network and telecom companies that use self-developed software stacks will be theirs. The first batch of big customers.

Sounds reasonable, but analysts believe that this is a theory that has not yet passed the test. "If the ultra-large-scale data center market will adopt ARM core SoCs, then Qualcomm will be the next-generation leader in the market;" Paul Teich, an analyst at market research firm TIrias Research, said: "Qualcomm has advanced through its mobile phone chip business. The process node is where the differentiation is."

Qualcomm's foundry partners should be Samsung, which produces more and more Snapdragon components; the partnership between the two companies makes Samsung one of Snapdragon's largest customers.

However, it remains to be seen whether Qualcomm's strength in the mobile phone field means success in the server market.

"The development of the ARM server market is slower than what we all expected two or three years ago, mainly due to software maturity and the lack of truly compelling chips from trusted vendors;" Another market research organization Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight64, said: "Although Qualcomm is a newcomer to the server market, its reputation is not questioned."

In fact, Chandrasekher pointed out: “The safety assumption is that we are showing customers a long-term blueprint.” In public, Qualcomm only said that its Centriq 2400 series will contain up to 48 custom 64-bit codenamed Falkor. The meta core, and show that the chip has the ability to perform massive data analysis software - including Apache Spark and the Linux language Java language Hadoop.

At the product presentation, Qualcomm said the new chip is a single-socket component that will support ARM TrustZone security features; Teich of TIrias Research said that Qualcomm server chips support ARM's hardware root trust. It is also a focus of differentiation.

However, Chandrasekher declined to comment on Centriq's value proposiTIon, and did not want to disclose its operating frequency, power consumption and price; the wafer's customized Falkor may be out-of-order core, single The chip also includes Ethernet, encryption technology and PCIe peripherals.

Qualcomm will reveal more details of Centriq next year, which is expected to be held in March at the Open Compute Project (OCP) conference; if Qualcomm is successful, it will have network giants such as Facebook or Microsoft. (Microsoft) collaborated to adopt the OCP board design of the company's chips.

The ARM server market has been a difficult level to break through, including startup Calxeda and experienced big players such as Applied Micro, Broadcom and HP.

"Despite six years of commitment and enthusiastic discussions in the industry, ARM servers have not gained attention in the market;" Gina Longoria, an analyst at market research firm Moor Insights & Strategy, said: "The kinetic energy from suppliers and customers seems to be weakening now. However, the industry is still eager to have an alternative to the Intel architecture." She believes that it will take at least two years to challenge Intel's Xeon chip leadership in the server market.

Qualcomm expects that next year's large data center will account for about 20% of the overall server market revenue, and by 2020 the proportion will increase to 50%; the company's target market also includes servers for telecom applications, Chandrasekher said, these servers use data centers The architecture performs OpenStack and Network FuncTIons Virtualization.

“In fact, the Centriq of the 10 nm process may help Qualcomm achieve a performance and watt performance and watts with Xeon;” Longoria said: “It’s effective against Xeon’s performance. No one vendor in the ARM camp has been able to do so."

Insightwood's Brookwood pointed out that Intel may not have a 10 nm version of Xeon until 2018, but the company: "It should be said that the wafer manufacturer's 10 nm process is not as good as Intel's 14 nm process.

Other manufacturers certainly want to take a share in the server market. "The market acceptance speed of the ARM and OpenPower architectures in 2017 seems to be still slow;" Teich of Tirias Research said: "By 2018, IBM's OpenPower core licensees should launch the first non-IBM Power outside of China. SoC, there will be a new generation of ARM server SoCs on the market."

In fact, there is also an ARM server SoC competitor in the market, Cavium. The company expects to launch the 14 nm ThunderX2 series 54 core 2.6 GHz processor in early 2018, in line with Teich's timeline.

Analyst Linley Gwennap speculated that China's large data center will take the lead in adopting ARM servers; one Baidu (Baidu) engineer revealed that the company is testing ARMv8 systems.

Qualcomm is also ready to seize the above opportunities. The company announced in January this year that it has established a server chip design company with the Guizhou government of China. Chandrasekher, who is also a member of the board of directors of the joint venture, said that they have already recruited a CEO and various fields. The elite, headquartered in the United States before the Thanksgiving Day moved to Beijing. In addition, Qualcomm has transferred Centriq technology to the joint venture, and the latter is currently working on developing a proprietary version of China.

Chandrasekher said: “It’s very interesting to create one thing from scratch, and just a year ago, everything was just a bunch of files;” He has experience in launching a large-scale new thing and led the Centrino chip development team during his tenure at Intel. Leading the built-in Wi-Fi trend in notebook computers.

In this case, the situation is different. Chandrasekher's target customer is not a system manufacturer; in fact, he has not yet provided the Centriq chip sample to any system manufacturer, but first contacted the engineers of the top seven network operators in the world because They are all designing their own servers, or even building their own chips inside the server.

“The large data center operators are designing themselves, and they are entrusting ODM manufacturers to build equipment;” He refers to Foxconn, Quanta, etc., and some ODMs are almost like the original system. The factory has built a software development and brand marketing team.

In addition, Chandrasekher also tried to use Qualcomm to obtain the advantages of the most advanced process of the foundry, and compete with Intel; Intel began to use its own state-of-the-art process to manufacture server chips around 1997, thus defeating the field at that time. Several RISC architecture processor vendors.

It will take a few years to know if Centriq will be Chandrasekher's next successful experience after Centrino, or just like other ARM server chips... and wait and see!

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