High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights.
Intel has launched its next-generation server processor to boost its presence in data centres and cloud storage, while at the same time pooh-poohing an acquisition by rival Advanced Micro Devices in the same area.
At a launch event in San Francisco on Tuesday, Intel said the Xeon E5 product family represented up to an 80 per cent performance improvement over its previous generation. It said it was not impressed with the server technology of SeaMicro and declined to buy it before AMD announced a $334m deal last week.
Intel said the E5 also delivered the best performance per watt in terms of energy efficiency in data centres and information could be moved in and out of the processor at up to triple previous speeds.
The chip represents Intel expanding its product line in data centres from the use of its processors in servers to storage and networking products as well – the E5, formerly codenamed Romley, will be used in all three areas.
The amount of internet traffic going through data centres is expected to grow by 33 percent annually through 2015, as consumers and businesses increasingly access their content and information through the data being stored in the centres’ “cloud”.
Intel predicts the number of cloud servers will more than triple globally by 2015 to meet demand. Revenues for its data centre group grew 17 per cent in 2011 and Paul Otellini, Intel chief executive, has described the E5 as “probably the most well-rounded product we’ve produced in this genre so far”.
AMD, its main competitor in PC processors, bought SeaMicro last week to try to win back server market share lost to Intel in recent years.
But Diane Bryant (pictured), head of the data centre group, said Intel felt it had a very robust and superior solution in the micro-server segment where SeaMicro operates.
“We did look at SeaMicro’s fabric technology – I think there’re very few people that they didn’t come to and shop their solution to, so we were one of many and were asked if we would be interested in it or even in licensing the technology,” she said.
“We were not impressed and we declined and very soon thereafter, our competitor acquired them.”
No comments:
Post a Comment