Intel has a stranglehold over almost every niche of the microprocessor industry. However, the recent introduction of the AMD Zen architecture could spell trouble to one of Intel's precious and perhaps most lucrative markets: data centers.
Intel has an almost monopolistic control of the server and data center microchip market. Intel's products have been the default choice of many data centers and cloud services for several years. Intel's x86 chips enjoy an unrivaled success in the server market, according to Madison. This success is widely attributed to the absence of competitive products from the company's close rival, AMD.
“Naples” is bringing flexibility, security & performance to support datacenter workloads. Forrest Norrod explains. https://t.co/m5HwW67ebz pic.twitter.com/M93vy1G10F
— AMD (@AMD) March 9, 2017
AMD's Zen architecture, with the recent release of the Ryzen line of consumer processors, have been positively received by the tech market. While AMD is aiming to the consumer market first, the company have already declared its intention to field Zen-based server chips within the foreseeable future.
Compared to Intel's flagship Xeon processors, AMD Naples processors have 45 percent more cores, 60 percent more I/O capacity, and a massive 122 percent more memory bandwidth, according to Motley Fool. These numbers are impressive and promising but are not powerful enough to unseat Intel in general.
The first product expected to hit the market is the AMD Naples which packs a massive 32 cores. AMD is also touting its next-generation high-bandwidth memory technology as a key selling point of the Naples. Lastly, and this should come as no surprise, AMD's aggressive price points is widely speculated to topple Intel's dominance in the server market.
Despite the promise of the Naples processor, some tech analysts are convinced that AMD cannot take over Intel's dominance in the market overnight. AMD's re-entry into the market will create a healthy competition between the two companies, something that has been long demanded by the tech community.
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