In the realm of data infrastructure, Google makes a noteworthy entry with its inaugural "Axion" chip tailored for powering its data centers. This ann
In the realm of data infrastructure, Google makes a noteworthy entry with its inaugural “Axion” chip tailored for powering its data centers. This announcement, unveiled during the Cloud Next event in Las Vegas, marks Google’s stride alongside tech giants like Amazon, Alibaba, and Microsoft, each forging their paths by deploying proprietary server processors to diminish reliance on established microprocessor manufacturers, notably Intel and Nvidia.
Google’s in-house data center CPU, christened Axion, derives its foundation from ARM’s Nanovers V2 technology. ARM, a British semiconductor design firm renowned for crafting and licensing CPU architectures to various entities, including Apple and Qualcomm, boasts a staggering presence, powering nearly 99 percent of premium smartphones.
According to Google, the Axion chip boasts a 30 percent enhancement in performance compared to the swiftest general-purpose Arm-based virtual machines presently available in cloud environments. Furthermore, it showcases up to a 50 percent performance boost and a remarkable 60 percent improvement in energy efficiency compared to equivalent VMs founded on x86 architecture.
The versatility of the Axion chip extends beyond Google’s internal operations, catering to a myriad of general-purpose computing tasks such as web hosting, data crunching, containerized workloads, and database management. Detailed specifications of the chip remain undisclosed at this juncture. Notably, Google reveals that Axion chips are already in action, fueling platforms like YouTube ads, Google Earth Engine, and various other Google services including BigTable, Spanner, BigQuery, Blobstore, and Pub/Sub. The tech titan headquartered in Mountain View, California, aims to unveil the chip to Google Cloud business clients “later this year.”
Google’s foray into crafting bespoke server processors underscores the cutthroat nature of the cloud infrastructure market, where organizations heavily rely on data centers and engage in pay-per-usage arrangements with major providers like Google and Amazon. For Google, its cloud division, spearheaded by Thomas Kurian, an Indian-American executive, constitutes nearly 11 percent of the company’s total revenue, which stood at $86 billion in Q4 of 2023. Google commands a 7.5 percent share of the cloud infrastructure market in 2022, trailing behind the combined dominance of Amazon and Microsoft, who collectively grasp 62 percent of the market, as per estimates from Gartner, a prominent market research firm.
ARM-based CPUs are gaining momentum in the cloud data center sphere, with various entities rolling out custom CPUs on a substantial scale. Amazon’s AWS introduced its Graviton1 processor in 2018, Alibaba followed suit in 2021, and Microsoft unveiled its AI-centric chip the preceding year.
Google’s involvement in ARM architectures isn’t novel. The company has long been engaged in fabricating silicon designs. Tensor, Google’s tailor-made ARM processor, currently empowers its Pixel smartphones. Anchored on the AI-enhancing TPU, Tensor pledges advancements in image processing, video rendering, search algorithms, caption generation, text-to-speech capabilities, and more. Reportedly, the company aims to transition from the modified chips supplied by Samsung, presently utilized in Pixel devices, to a wholly custom chip by the year 2025.
In conclusion, Google’s introduction of its inaugural “Axion” chip for data centers marks a significant stride in the realm of data infrastructure, signaling the tech giant’s ambition to reduce reliance on established microprocessor manufacturers like Intel and Nvidia. Beyond powering Google’s internal operations, the chip is poised to cater to a wide range of computing tasks, promising versatility and scalability. With ARM-based CPUs gaining traction in the cloud data center market, Google’s foray into crafting bespoke server processors underscores the intensifying competition among major cloud providers. This move reflects Google’s strategic vision to expand its footprint in the cloud infrastructure space, led by its cloud division, which continues to be a significant revenue driver for the company.
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