Hewlett Packard is reportedly planning to design and sell servers powered by RISC-based ARM chips.
According to Bloomberg, HP is already working on the chips with the Texas-based Calxeda, which is partly owned by ARM.
As Bloomberg’s Ian King and Aaron Ricadela notes, the move will significantly escalate ARM’s rivalry with Intel in yet another lucrative space: the $9 billion server-processor market.
Although ARM has yet to officially comment on the above-mentioned rumor, company rep James Bruce recently told TG Daily he was quite bullish about the prospect of low-powered, RISC-based ARM processors finding their way into an increasing number of servers.
“The entire industry is now realizing you can’t just keep on sucking power, whether from an environmentally green or purely financial perspective,” Bruce said in May.
“And that is why we are working with partners to integrate ARM chips into server designs.”
ARM VP Michael Inglis expressed similar sentiments in an interview with Bloomberg last week.
“One of the biggest issues today in the server farms is power management… [And] as we move forward into 2014 you’ll begin to see systems emerging.”
It should also be noted that ARM – which currently dominates the tablet and smartphone markets – is preparing to challenge Intel on its home-front with chips capable of powering a new generation of Windows notebooks and even (mainstream) desktop PCs.
