Intel officials are looking to use a combination of low-power "Sandy
Bridge" Xeon chips and Atom
processors to build out their portfolio of products for ultradense micro
servers.
Executives with the giant chip maker first talked about micro
servers in 2009, describing high-performance, energy-efficient systems that
share resources and target such environments as large data centers and service
providers, where density and low costs are important.
For Intel, offering processors for such systems is increasingly important as the
company looks to address an emerging challenge from ARM
Holdings and partners that use its designs to create low-power chips. ARM-based
chips from the likes of Qualcomm and Samsung dominate such high-demand markets
as smartphones and tablets, and now ARM
officials are looking to expand
into the data center in such arenas as cloud computing and Web hosting.
Vendors such as Marvell, Nvidia and Calxeda are working to build ARM-based
processors that can be used in such systems.
During a press conference March 15, Boyd Davis, general manager of Intel's Data Center
Group, said such low-power servers can eventually account for as much as 10
percent of the systems market, and that Intel over the next two years will
offer a range of Xeon and Atom processors to meet that demand.
For more, read the eWEEK article: Intel Plans Xeon, Atom Chips for Micro Servers.
