Google and Facebook design their own servers and all sorts of other hardware for their massive data centers. Evidence suggests they're also getting customized processors. Illustration: Ross Patton
Asked if Intel customizes microprocessors for its biggest customers, Diane Bryant said: "Yes."
Bryant heads the Intel group that builds server chips and other hardware bound for large data centers. Last week, during a dinner with reporters in downtown San Francisco, she was explaining just how much the server business has changed in recent years. In 2008, three server giants — HP, Dell, and IBM — accounted for 75 percent of the revenues Intel pulled in from the sale of server chips. But today, Bryant said, that 75 percent is spread across eight server makers, and one of them is Google, a company that only makes servers for itself.
Then a reporter asked if Intel customizes parts for its largest customers. "Yes," Bryant said. "We want to give them a way of differentiating their machines."
Bryant didn't say much more, but those few words shine a light on another part of the big-time chip business that's rarely discussed. There are cases where a large chipmaker such as Intel and AMD will provide certain customers with chips that others may not have access to. Sometimes, this merely means that when the chipmaker cranks out a big batch of processors, one customer gets the chips that happen to have the best speed or power ratings. But in other cases, the chipmaker will actually modify processors at the request of a particular customer.
This practice may show how determined the Dells and the HPs are to offer machines that stand out in what has become a commodity market. But it may also show how far Google and other web giants will go as they work to customize the servers that underpin their online services, pushing to reduce power and cost in the data center.
Intel declined to provide additional information about its efforts in this area, and Google declined to comment as well. But rumors have long held that Google pushes for more than just ordinary chips from Intel. Intel rival AMD says it has customized chips in certain cases. And Facebook — which also designs its own servers — acknowledges that it requests specific silicon from the big chip makers.
According to John Williams, vice president of server marketing and business development at AMD, there are situations where his company has turned off certain parts of a processor at the request of customers — or even added "instructions," the fundamental operations that define how a processor works.
Asked if Facebook makes such requests, Facebook spokesman Michael Kirkland said: "We do work with Intel and other vendors in these ways." But he stopped short of providing details, saying the company had not yet asked chip makers for approval to discuss the matter with the press.
As the big web companies step up their efforts to remake the hardware driving their massive data centers, chip customization could become a key battleground in the ongoing microprocessor wars. In recent months, Intel has acquired several technologies that would allow it to heavily customize server chips, but its rivals question whether it has the freedom to do so.
Intel operates massive chip fabrication plants, or fabs, that have traditionally been geared towards the production of millions upon millions of largely identical chips. According to Andrew Feldman — co-founder of a new-age server maker called SeaMicro, which was recently acquired by Intel rival AMD — there are other companies better suited to the creation of customized server chips for the big web players. Yes, one is AMD, which no longer runs its own fabs. The other is ARM.
ARM is the company behind so many of the chips that drive today's smartphones, but it's slowly moving into server chips as well. Though its new server chip designs are still a long way from live data centers, they've piqued the interest of many tech outfits because they consume relatively little power, a major concern for the big web players. But there may be an added attraction: ARM doesn't build its own chips. It licenses chip designs to others so that they can then be, well, customized.
Pages: 1 2 View All
Sarah Mitroff 20 Sep, 2012
-
Source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/CSylByLrmHo/
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Ultimate Silicon Valley Perk: Custom Chips From Intel and AMD
Dengan url
http://sizeofhappiness.blogspot.com/2012/09/ultimate-silicon-valley-perk-custom.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Ultimate Silicon Valley Perk: Custom Chips From Intel and AMD
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Ultimate Silicon Valley Perk: Custom Chips From Intel and AMD
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar