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Arm-based server solutions to expand presence in edge computing market

Frank Kung, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei

Arm is expanding its presence in the edge computing server market as its server solutions' lower power consumption and costs are giving the chip designer competitiveness.

First-tier cloud computing operators and server brands such as Amazon, Huawei and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) have invested in development of Arm-based chips and systems, and Arm has also begun pushing Project Cassini, aiming to strengthen its server platform's ecosystem and compatibility with edge computing devices.

Amazon is expected to become a major client of Arm-based cloud computing solutions. In addition to its Arm-based AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) services, the US-based datacenter operator is also set to release Arm-based Outposts hybrid cloud services by the end of 2021 to target the enterprise edge computing business.

Arm-based solutions currently only account for a limited share in the server market and still have issues concerning compatibility with x86-based server hardware and software. Their ecosystem are still not yet comprehensive.

But they are expected to gradually penetrate into the edge server market that is currently dominated by the x86 solutions, with more server brands and cloud computing operators to develop products based on the Arm architecture, Digitimes Research believes.