Google announces first own ARM CPU for data centers

With smartphones, smart home gadgets and Chromebooks, Google already has a little bit of in-house hardware to offer here and there. But now the search engine giant wants to go one step further. With Axion, the tech company has announced its first in-house CPU.

Google presents ARM processors

Google has christened its new development Axion and presented it directly on its official website. This is an ARM processor. The in-house processors are to be used for the tech company’s cloud servers. Apart from the name itself, however, the tech company is still being rather vague about the new hardware.

But of course there are already a few jibes at the competition. However, areas of application can already be named. The ARM processor is expected to flex its muscles in databases and web hosting in particular. It is probably also an open secret that AI will play a major role in the in-house CPU.

The tech company is likely to make significant savings compared to a commercially available accelerator with a CPU developed in-house. The experts at TechCrunch provide a little more insight into the specs. According to the report, Axion will run on the basis of ARM Neoverse 2 and rely on PCIe 5.0. Support for DDR5 RAM and CXL 2.0 should also be available.

Nvidia as a strong partner

In recent years, hardly any other tech company has been as successful as Nvidia. The H100 accelerator in particular, which is relevant for AI systems, has brought the chip manufacturer record sales. So it’s no wonder that Google now wants to cooperate with the company. In particular, cooperation is to take place in the respective cloud systems. Among other things, Nvidia’s upcoming AI GPUs will be able to work with Google’s cloud systems.

Release still uncertain

There are still many unknowns surrounding Axion. This applies not only to the technical data of the ARM processor. A release date is also still up in the air. However, Google would like to reveal more details about the planned in-house hardware this year.