Qualcomm will begin offering a 48 core ARM server chip using 10 nm fabrication technology named the Centriq 2400. Why is this important? First Intel has a whopping ninety-five percent of the server market, basically ninety-five percent of the internet is run on Intel. It's pretty close to a monopoly. Second, fifty percent of Intel's profits come from servers so it's an important market for them.
Previously ARM server chips didn't have the horsepower to compete with Intel in servers and were just too slow. Think an Iphone vs an Intel I7 desktop. Not even close.
Up until now Intel has ALWAYS been in the lead in fabrication technology offering the smallest transistor size. Transistor size is everything in chips. It's what drives Moore's law and the rest of technology innovation. However, due to Samsung and TSMC's success in cell phone chips they've been able to leap frog Intel and have transitioned to the 10 nm node while Intel's still stuck on 14 nm. This is HUGE.
Qualcomm has had great success in cell phones too. As a result they have a Ninety billion dollar market cap and tons of financial resources to take on Intel in the profitable server market.
Facebook and Google are very interested in ARM server chips due to their lower cost and power consumption, but they just haven't been fast enough.
It's going to be interesting to see how all this plays out.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10918/qualcomm-demos-48core-centriq-2400-server-soc-in-action-begins-sampling
