Alibaba unveils custom ARM-based server chip to boost its cloud business
- ByStartupStory | October 19, 2021
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. unveiled a new server chip based on advanced 5-nanometer technology, a milestone in China’s semiconductor self-sufficiency drive. The Chinese tech giant’s latest custom chip, called Yitian 710, is based on the microarchitecture of Arm Ltd., owned by SoftBank Group Corp., according to a statement released Tuesday. Alibaba, which holds its annual cloud summit in Hangzhou, said silicon will be used in its own data centres in the “near future” and will not be sold commercially for the time being.
Powered by these chips, Alibaba Cloud also announced the development of its own servers called Panjiu. The combination aims to enhance the company’s core cloud services by optimizing IT performance and energy efficiency.
“Together with our global partners, including Intel, Nvidia, AMD and Arm, we will continue to innovate our computing infrastructure and offer various IT services to our global customers. Jeff Zhang, president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence and director of Alibaba DAMO Academy, said at the Apsara conference.
Alibaba Cloud claims to have built its own server chip and calls it compatible with the latest Armv9 architecture. The Chinese tech giant also plans to develop its own servers that will be designed for “general purpose” and “specialized AI” purposes.
Custom-made by its THead chip development unit, the new 5nm server chip is powered by 128 Arm cores with a top clock speed of 3.2GHz, according to Alibaba. Each processor, called the Yitian 710, has 60 billion built-in transistors and includes eight DDR5 channels and 96 PCIe 5.0 lanes, the Chinese technology provider said in a statement.
He added that the new chip was the first server processor compatible with Arm’s v9 architecture.
It would also be deployed in Alibaba’s data centres.
Alibaba’s server chip is one of the most advanced by a Chinese company to date as it, along with global competitors Amazon and Google, gradually replaces the offerings of traditional chipmakers such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices with new custom products for their data centres. and work pressure.
Follow Startup Story
Related Posts
