According to Bloomberg reports, we can say that Microsoft designing its’s own ARM-based chips for powering their Cloud server and Surface devices. However, the primary focus is developing a chip for it’s Microsoft’s Azure cloud services.
Following Microsoft is going to explore the possibility of designing another chip suitable for its surface devices. Undoubtedly that also going to be ARM-based.
As a result, Microsoft is going to reduce its reliance on Intel. Presently Microsoft uses intel processors for powering its Azure cloud services. Also, most of its surface lineup runs on intel too
Intel, The chipmaker has a very large share in the server market, owing upto roughly 90% of the market. Mostly powering what runs the internet.
Microsoft previously partnered with Qualcomm:
In the past, Microsoft has worked with AMD and Qualcomm companies for designing custom chips. The developed chips were included in the Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X. The company made an ARM-based SQ1 processor for the Surface Pro X in 2019, Recently it got an upgraded SQ2 variant in the October of this year.
Conversely, The SQ1 and SQ2 processors were with little improved versions of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx gen 1 and gen 2 compute platforms.
Is Microsoft Following the Footsteps of APPLE?
Earlier this year Apple has jumped ship with an “ARM-based M1 processor” moving away from Intel. The Mi processor used to power MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
Thus the processor already gained a lot of attraction among its users and tech enthusiasts. Apple’s new ARM-based chip at 5nm is more effective than Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD’s latest offerings.
Early feedback has been positive, and many users appreciating the new processor’s power and efficiency compare to others. Apple has said M1 processors can outperform other competitor’s processors by up to 2 times.
With all this, we can say that Microsoft not the only company that is focusing on designing its own ARM-based chips for its servers and Surface PCs.
“Because silicon is a foundational building block for technology, we’re continuing to invest in our own capabilities in areas like design, manufacturing, and tools, while also fostering and strengthening partnerships with a wide range of chip providers,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg.
Microsoft is going to reduce its dependency on its Hardware Partner:
Intel had a long-Running partnership as the Primary processor maker for Microsoft.
The Microsoft Surface Pro X didn’t meet the user’s expectations. Based on the present news we can say that Microsoft is going to produce something incredibly positive in the future.
Apple’s M1 chip can the driving force for a lot of tech companies, who are ready to start and invest in the development of their own ARM-based chips.
Without a doubt, Microsoft is one of them. The custom silicon going to be found in its surface line and cloud servers. But there is no clear information on what it’ll be called and with whom the company is going to collaborate for making it possible.
Microsoft’s Azure cloud service is currently running on Intel processors only. So, Microsoft’s decision of making its own ARM-based chips can to reduce dependency on its hardware partner.
The Apple M1 chip has already proven its capacity in performance and in being power efficient. Even Qualcomm president said, ” apple’s chip efforts are a sign of great things for the future of computing”
This means that Microsoft and Qualcomm are going to double down their efforts in developing ARM-based chips. To match Apple’s custom silicon performance.
Also, the intel shares decreased as much as 6% after Bloomberg reported that “Microsoft developing its own ARM-based chips. Well, all of this is going to affect the Intel processor developing share in the market in the upcoming future.
Amazon ARM-based Graviton2 processors:
Amazon has already launched its own ARM-based Graviton 2, a year ago on AWS. It is also a significant threat for Intel and AMD. In spite of the performance and cost benefits, they can offer the ARM-based servers are a small part of the market right now. But soon it is all going to change with companies focusing more on developing their own ARM-based chips.
Why Companies are moving towards ARM-based chips:
An ARM processor, one of the CPUs family based on Reduced instruction computer set architecture designed by Advanced Risk Machines.
They offer high speed and the most power-efficiency for the devices.
Conclusion:
Bloomberg reported, Microsoft designing its own ARM-based chips for its devices. but didn’t mention any timeline about when we can expect the first Custom chip from Microsoft. After seeing Apple M1 processor results.
As a result, a lot of companies are going to be deadly serious about making their own ARM-based chips.
