Intel combines Xeons with FPGAs for data center chips

Intel will release a chip next year that consists of a Xeon processor, combined with a third-party fpga. The processor was specifically developed for data centers and has to compete with ARM chips, among others.

Intel is currently working on the hybrid chip, Diane Bryant of Intel’s data center group told GigaOm’s Structure conference. “We’ve worked with major providers to give them exactly what they want.” said Bryant. The fpga is linked to the Xeon processor in such a way that it can directly access the memory of the CPU, among other things. This should lead to speed gains compared to simply using a processor with an fpga side by side.

For example, Microsoft does the latter in the data centers for the Bing services, it turned out Monday. Bryant declined to comment on whether Microsoft will use the upcoming Xeons. FPGAs can be programmed to handle certain algorithms efficiently, and as the task changes, they can be reprogrammed. This makes them interesting for use in data centers.

It is not known from which manufacturer the fpgas that Intel uses are. Intel concluded an agreement with Altera last year, but the fpgas could also be supplied by Xilinx or Latice Semiconductor, for example. Intel sees increasing competition from cheap and efficient ARM chips in data centers. AMD, among others, uses this.