Speaking at Future Horizons mid-year semiconductor market forecast he said: "Google has over 1m servers; Amazon and Microsoft over a quarter of a million; IBM, eBay, YouTube, BBC, online games companies and many others often have over 50,000 servers."

Power consumption expended by these machines is then increased by the power consumption of air conditioning equipment to keep server farms from overheating, so that reducing power consumption has the strongest leverage and is a high priority.

Bryant said Google is expected to add 25% to its server count each year. "At Google everything is Intel and will stay so. They can't throw away legacy software and they can't afford to support multiple software versions."

"2011 will be the year of the low power server....most of these new low-power servers will be based on processors using the Intel instruction set. Despite languages such as Java and Python, supporting multiple versions of server programs across thousands of servers is simply far too complicated for most IT departments."

Absence of a 64-bit processor also prevents an ARM-based processor from gaining many slots in the server market. "Most new servers either require pure 64-bit operation now or in the near future. Non-Intel solutions save power by switching to lower bit lengths when they can so their power saving in servers will not be as pronounced as expected," he said adding, "Expect to see a more efficient Intel Xeon or AMD processor for servers."

ARM signs TSMC and Microsoft

ARM and Microsoft Corp signed a new licensing agreement for the ARM architecture, extending the collaborative relationship between the two companies since 1997 on software and devices across embedded, consumer and mobile spaces, enabling many companies to deliver user experiences on a broad portfolio of ARM-based products.

“Microsoft is an important member of the ARM ecosystem, and has been for many years,” said Mike Muller, CTO ARM. “With this architecture license, Microsoft will be at the forefront of applying and working with ARM technology in concert with a broad range of businesses addressing multiple application areas.”

“ARM is an important partner for Microsoft and we deliver multiple operating systems on the company’s architecture, most notably Windows Embedded and Windows Phone,” said KD Hallman, GM, Microsoft. “With closer access to the ARM technology we will be able to enhance our research and development activities for ARM-based products.”

ARM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd also announced a long-term agreement providing TSMC access to a broad range of ARM processors enabling development of ARM physical IP across TSMC technology nodes.

The agreement supports the companies’ mutual customers to achieve optimised Systems-On-Chip (SoC) based on ARM processors and covers a wide range of process nodes extending down to 20nm.

 TSMC has access to optimise the implementation of ARM processors on TSMC process technologies, including ARM Cortex processor family and CoreLink interconnect fabric for AMBA protocols. It also establishes a long-term relationship with ARM for the development of physical IP, including memory products and standard cell libraries targeting the most advanced TSMC 28nm and 20nm processes.

“The signing of this agreement is a significant semiconductor industry milestone because it formalizes a forward looking, long-term relationship between two of the industry’s leading companies,” explained Mike Inglis, executive VP and GM, ARM Processor division.

ARM and TSMC will collaborate on creating TSMC technology optimised processor core implementations for benchmarking of optimal power, performance and area. Typical implementations will target consumer-centric market segments including wireless, portable computing, tablet PCs and high performance computing.

“We believe this effort will enhance the value of our Open Innovation Platform that efficiently empowers innovation throughout the supply chain,” said Dr. Fu-Chieh Hsu, (right) VP of Design and Technology Platform and Deputy Head of R&D at TSMC.

“The combination of ARM’s industry leading IP and TSMC’s world-class technology and manufacturing provides our mutual customers with compelling benefits for advanced semiconductor applications.”