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Which company could be interested in buying this data-center CPU division from Qualcomm?

m_mueller 8y ago
I could see Fujitsu. They already have considerable investment in datacenter ARM. The government’s post-K-computer is supposed to be the first big rollout of what they’re doing with ARM.
TorKlingberg 8y ago
I imagine they were reusing a lot of technology from their mobile chips, so it would be difficult to split it off.
- AlphaSite 8y ago
  AMD did it, it’s how Qualcomm ended up with adreno in the first place.
wyldfire 8y ago
Intel, AMD, Samsung, Micron, Cavium, Broadcom.
ksec 8y ago
My guess would be Samsung, I don't see anyone else being a good fit. Centriq is already being Fabbed by Samsung, it also has a in development Next Generation CPU that has improved ISA and uses Samsung 7nm. They also own Joyent, although I am not sure if it is relevant anymore.
- monocasa 8y ago
  My guess is no one. The whole point was to apply the perf/watt gains you see in mobile SoCs to a larger die. Qualcomm wouldn't want to sell it to Samsung, just to see Exynos get better. Better to just destroy the project and write it off as a loss rather than help a competitor in your primary market.
  - ksec 8y ago
    [b]Server Chips[/b]
djrogers 8y ago
I doubt it would happen for a number of reasons, but who is a) known for making amazingly powerful and power-sipping ARM chips, and b) rumored to be working on more powerful server/desktop class ARM chips for new products? Apple! OTOH, Apple's chip design team probably doesn't have much (if anything) to gain from buying out qualcomm's team.
- szatkus 8y ago
  Wait, since when Apple sells servers?
  - monocasa 8y ago
    They're on the edge of having a large enough datacenter presence that, since they're already manufacturing their own CPUs that are conscious of perf/watt, building a server SKU for their own internal use might make sense.
  - djrogers 8y ago
    They use server class Xeons in their iMac Pro and Mac Pro lines - you don't have to build servers to use chips like that.
    - monocasa 8y ago
      I don't think that these have the single threaded performance to practically replace a Xeon. They fit the niche of servers a lot better, where you realistically care more about throughput/watt. Nearly every use case that would be able to take advantage of the extreme parallelism in these chips in a Mac Pro, would be better served by the GPU.

I could see Fujitsu. They already have considerable investment in datacenter ARM. The government’s post-K-computer is supposed to be the first big rollout of what they’re doing with ARM.

TorKlingberg 8y ago

I imagine they were reusing a lot of technology from their mobile chips, so it would be difficult to split it off.

AlphaSite 8y ago
AMD did it, it’s how Qualcomm ended up with adreno in the first place.

wyldfire 8y ago

Intel, AMD, Samsung, Micron, Cavium, Broadcom.

ksec 8y ago

My guess would be Samsung, I don't see anyone else being a good fit. Centriq is already being Fabbed by Samsung, it also has a in development Next Generation CPU that has improved ISA and uses Samsung 7nm. They also own Joyent, although I am not sure if it is relevant anymore.

monocasa 8y ago
My guess is no one. The whole point was to apply the perf/watt gains you see in mobile SoCs to a larger die. Qualcomm wouldn't want to sell it to Samsung, just to see Exynos get better. Better to just destroy the project and write it off as a loss rather than help a competitor in your primary market.
- ksec 8y ago
  [b]Server Chips[/b]

djrogers 8y ago

I doubt it would happen for a number of reasons, but who is a) known for making amazingly powerful and power-sipping ARM chips, and b) rumored to be working on more powerful server/desktop class ARM chips for new products? Apple! OTOH, Apple's chip design team probably doesn't have much (if anything) to gain from buying out qualcomm's team.

szatkus 8y ago
Wait, since when Apple sells servers?
- monocasa 8y ago
  They're on the edge of having a large enough datacenter presence that, since they're already manufacturing their own CPUs that are conscious of perf/watt, building a server SKU for their own internal use might make sense.
- djrogers 8y ago
  They use server class Xeons in their iMac Pro and Mac Pro lines - you don't have to build servers to use chips like that.
  - monocasa 8y ago
    I don't think that these have the single threaded performance to practically replace a Xeon. They fit the niche of servers a lot better, where you realistically care more about throughput/watt. Nearly every use case that would be able to take advantage of the extreme parallelism in these chips in a Mac Pro, would be better served by the GPU.