Trends
Google introduces first ARM-based custom data centre processor
Google Cloud joined AWS and Azure on Tuesday to announce its first custom Arm processor, called Axion, but nothing else was available.
Headline
Google Cloud joined AWS and Azure on Tuesday to announce its first custom Arm processor, called Axion, but nothing else was available.
Context
Google Cloud on Tuesday joined AWS and Azure in announcing its first custom Arm processor, called Axion. Based on the ARM-based Neoverse 2 design, Google says its Axion instance performs 30 percent better than other ARM-based instances from competitors such as AWS and Microsoft, 50% better than similar x86-based instances, and 60% more energy efficient. Google did not provide any documentation to back up these claims and, politely, declined to provide any other information. No launch date, no pricing, no additional technical data. Those “baseline” results? The company didn’t even say which X86 instance it was comparing Axion to.
Evidence
Pending intelligence enrichment.
Analysis
“Technical documentation, including benchmarking and architectural details, will be available later this year,” said Amanda Lam, a Google spokeswoman. Also read: Google releases Gemini in Android Studio to help with development After all, it took Google a while to announce Arm chips in the cloud, especially considering that Google has long been building its in-house TPU AI chips and recently customized ARM-based mobile chips for its Pixel phones. AWS introduced the Graviton chip back in 2018. To be fair, though, Microsoft only announced its Cobalt Arm chips late last year, and those chips aren’t yet available to customers. However, Microsoft Azure has provided instances of Ampere based Arm servers since 2022.
Key Points
- Google Cloud has joined AWS and Azure in announcing its first custom Arm processor, called Axion.
- But for now, Google declined to provide any other information about the chip, no launch date, no pricing, no additional technical numbers.
- Because Axion is built on an open foundation, Google Cloud customers will be able to bring their existing Arm workloads to Google Cloud without any modifications.
Actions
Pending intelligence enrichment.
