August 31st, 2020
Arm processors in the Data Center
Last week, Marvell announced a change in our strategy for
ThunderX, our Arm-based server-class processor product line. I’d like to take
the opportunity to put some more context around that announcement, and our
future plans in the data center market.
ThunderX is a product line that we started at Cavium, prior to our merger with
Marvell in 2018. At Cavium, we had built many generations of successful
processors for infrastructure applications, including our Nitrox security
processor and OCTEON infrastructure processor. These processors have been
deployed in the world’s most demanding data-plane applications such as
firewalls, routers, SSL-acceleration, cellular base stations, and Smart NICs.
Today, OCTEON is the most scalable and widely deployed multicore processor in
the market.
As co-founder of Cavium, I had a strong belief that Arm-based processors also had
a role to play in next generation data centers. One size simply doesn’t fit all
anymore, so we started the ThunderX product line for the server market. It was
a bold move, and we knew it would take significant time and investment to come
to fruition. In fact, we have spent six years now building multiple generations
of products, developing the ecosystem, the software, and working with customers
to qualify systems for production deployment in large data centers. ThunderX2 was
the industry’s first Arm-based processor capable of powering dual socket
servers that could go toe-to-toe with x86-based solutions, and clearly established
the performance credentials for Arm in the server market. We moved the bar
higher yet again with ThunderX3, as we discussed at Hot Chips 32.
Today, we see strong ecosystem support and a significant opportunity for Arm-based
processors in the data center. But the real market opportunity for server-class
Arm processors is in customized solutions, optimized for the use cases at hyperscale
data center operators. This should be no surprise, as the power of the Arm
architecture has always been in its ability to be integrated into highly optimized
designs tailored for specific use cases, and we see hyperscale datacenter
applications as no different.
Our rich IP portfolio, decades of processor expertise with Nitrox, OCTEON, and
ThunderX, combined with our new custom ASIC capability, and investment in the latest
TSMC 5nm process node, puts Marvell in a unique position to address this market
opportunity. So to us, this market driven change just makes sense. We look
forward to partnering with our customers and helping to deliver highly
optimized solutions tailored to their unique needs.