数据中心：技术竞争新前线

    在智能手机市场上，ARM一直是一统江山的霸主。现在，这家英国公司试图凭借强大的处理器设计能力进军更大的设备——服务器。

    目前，利润丰厚的数据中心市场由英特尔（Intel）生产的各类芯片主宰，ARM还没能在这一市场上取得重大突破。不过，本周二上午，该公司迎来了重大的发展里程碑：在旧金山举行的新闻发布会上，ARM宣布推出两款全新的64位芯片。据其称，这些芯片采用的新技术可将该公司目前生产的芯片性能提高3倍，同时保持其特有的低能耗，并能更好地适应企业需求，因为它能处理更大的内存。尽管在手机中采用能效更高的芯片已成为主流，但对数据中心来说这还是个新生事物。如何降低数据中心的能耗和成本已成为业内日益关注的问题，尤其对那些拥有大量服务器群的网络公司来说更是如此。

    不过，与对手英特尔有所不同的是，ARM实际上并不生产芯片，它仅仅提供技术授权并收取授权费。所以，它在任何市场上的成功都有赖于客户，即大型芯片制造企业的投入与配合。已有几家公司与之签订了协议，约定基于ARM的全新架构生产芯片。本周一，超威半导体公司（AMD）宣布将于2014年开始销售基于ARM技术开发的全新服务器。尽管位于加州森尼维尔市的芯片制造企业AMD还将继续开发其传统的X86系列处理器（这也是英特尔的看家买卖），该公司于本周一上午发布的一则新闻通报则称“数据中心的爆发式发展已带来了全新的机遇，即用完全不同的解决方案来优化计算” 。

    ARM的首席执行官沃伦•伊斯特对《财富》杂志（Fortune）称：“我们认为，AMD是至关重要的合作伙伴，因为它们已在服务器领域拥有极为广泛的业务关系。”本来伊斯特计划出席AMD本周一在旧金山举行的新闻发布会，但由于“桑迪”飓风的缘故而滞留欧洲。于是他只得在伦敦的出租车后座上为我们发来了这段视频。

    AMD并不是唯一一家希望将ARM推向服务器市场的公司。位于德克萨斯州奥斯汀市的嘉协达公司（Calxeda）近期刚完成一轮5500万美元的融资，它表示，通过运用ARM的芯片架构，将使“能效比现在基于商用X86芯片的服务器提升十倍”（ARM是该公司的原始投资方之一）。不过，即便ARM能取得成功，也不能指望它在服务器市场迅速获得大量市场份额。据首席执行官伊斯特称，要到2020年公司才有望获得20%的份额。更重要的是，英特尔绝不会坐视不管。它已经在智能手机上被ARM抢走风头了，因此绝不会在获利丰厚的数据中心市场将市场份额拱手相让。

    英特尔发言人乔恩•卡维尔称：“我们会认真对待数据中心业务受到的任何潜在威胁，不过我们很有信心在微服务器市场发展进程中保持领先地位。凭借Atom和Xeon产品线，以及正在出货或即将出货的18款微服务器设计，我们拥有强有力的低功耗产品发展规划。”

    译者：清远

    ARM Holdings (ARMH) rules the smartphone market. Now the British firm is trying to get its processor designs into somewhat larger gadgets -- servers.

    ARM has yet to make any significant inroads into lucrative data centers currently dominated by a different breed of chips that are manufactured by Intel (INTC). But the company hit a significant milestone Tuesday morning, when it announced two new 64-bit processor designs at a press event in San Francisco. According to ARM, the new technology can deliver triple the performance of its current chips while retaining its signature energy efficiency, and is better suited to meet enterprise needs because it can handle larger amounts of memory. While more efficient chips are a mainstay in tiny cell phones, they're new to data centers, where keeping energy -- and cost -- down is an increasing concern, especially to web companies with large server farms.

    But unlike its rival Intel, ARM doesn't actually manufacture any chips, it simply licenses its technology and collects royalties. So its success in any market relies on the commitment from its customers, large chipmakers. Several companies have already signed on to make chips based on ARM's new architecture. On Monday, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced it would start selling a new server products based on ARM's technology by 2014. While the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker will continue to develop its traditional line of X86 processors (Intel's bread and butter), an AMD release issued Monday morning said that the "explosion of the data center has brought with it an opportunity to optimize compute with vastly different solutions."

    "From our point of view AMD is significant because of the relationships they already have in the server world today," ARM's chief executive officer Warren East told Fortune. East had originally been scheduled to make an appearance at AMD's own press conference Monday in San Francisco, but was stuck in Europe due to Hurricane Sandy and instead issued this video from the back of a London cab.

    AMD's not the only company hoping to push ARM into the server world. Austin, Texas-based Calxeda recently closed a $55 million funding round to deliver "as much as a ten-fold improvement in energy efficiency compared to today's commodity X86-based servers," by using ARM's chip architecture. (ARM is one of Calxeda's original investors.) But even if ARM is successful, don't expect it to rake in significant market share in the server space anytime soon. According to CEO East, it will likely take until 2020 for the company to take in a 20% share. What's more, Intel won't be sitting still. It's already getting its butt kicked by ARM in smartphones, and it's not about to lose out on the lucrative data center market too.

    "We take any new potential threats to our data center business seriously but feel very well positioned to continue our leadership in microservers moving forward," says Intel spokesperson Jon Carvill. "We have a strong low-power roadmap for with our Atom and Xeon product lines and 18 microserver designs that are shipping now or will be imminently."