Qualcomm Samples 10nm 48-Core Centriq 2400 ARM Server Chip To Challenge Intel Dominance

Leading the charge for Qualcomm is the new Centriq 2400 series, which is based on Falkor microarchitecture that can be configured with up to 48 custom ARMv8 cores into a single socket. Most importantly, Qualcomm claims that this is the first server-class processor to be built using a 10-nanometer FinFET manufacturing process. If you recall, Qualcomm has already announced the 10-nm consumer-grade Snapdragon 835 processor, which will be manufactured by Samsung and will ship during the first half of 2017. Qualcomm today gave a live demonstration of the Centriq 2400 family, which is designed to provide the ultimate in high performance for datacenter workloads while delivering unmatched power efficiency.

“The Qualcomm Centriq 2400 series processors will drive high performance, power efficient ARM-based servers from concept to reality,” said Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager for Qualcomm Datacenter Technologies (and former Intel exec). “We are first in 10nm IC technology for mobile, and leveraging our expertise in ARM processors and system on chip design, we are the first with our Qualcomm Centriq family of server processors to bring the leading edge to the datacenter.”

Qualcomm is already sampling Centriq 2400 series processors, and is expected to ship production silicone to customers during H2 2017. Intel’s 10nm Xeon chips aren’t expected to ship until the second half of 2018, or roughly a year after Intel’s 10nm Cannonlake desktop processors debut.