2 min Devops

ARM splits its server chip designs, boosts performance

ARM splits its server chip designs, boosts performance

Neoverse V1 and N2 platforms deliver up to 50% more performance over the previous model. These new chip designs should boost the datacenter business. .

ARM has announced two new chip designs for the server market that will offer semiconductor makers an impressive jump in performance.

The new Neoverse V1 and N2 chip designs are the follow on to the Neoverse N1, which has seen marked success already in the market. The N1 is currently used by Amazon Web Services Inc. in the company’s cloud platform. The N1 is also used in the hyperscale data centers of three other global providers.

The new chips have a popular pedigree

Chris Bergey, Arm’s SVP and GM, Infrastructure Line of Business, issued a press release on September 22 detailing the release.

“Neoverse N1 solutions are the first steps towards a new infrastructure, and are now powering innovations from supercomputers to increasing deployments in the world’s largest data centers, and all the way to the edge,” he writes.

“ARM is further enabling the infrastructure transformation with the introduction of Neoverse V1 and N2 platforms, delivering 50% and 40% more performance, respectively, over Neoverse N1.”

Two chips, each with their own purpose

Bergey explains that V1delivers 50% faster single-threaded performance compared to the N1. Neoverse V1 supports Scalable Vector Extensions (SVE). This in turn delivers “massive potential for markets such as high-performance cloud, HPC, and machine learning.”

This feature is notable due to the increased use of machine learning accelerators. Machine learning is critical to enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence. ARM is specifically targeting this market to capitalize on this trend.

The other new chip, the Neoverse N2, delivers scalability through “an even higher-performing computing solution to address scale-out performance needs of applications across a range of use cases.” according to Bergey.

The N2 targets more than just servers, according to Bergey. It can also be used in SmartNICs and enterprise networking, including power-constrained edge devices. The chip will also find use in data center infrastructure, such as routers and switches.

The Neoverse V1 has already been released, but the N2 is being tested by Arm’s early adoption customers. It should however be available early next year

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