高通和ARM要给英特尔制造大麻烦？

高通已经在逐步实施进入服务器市场的计划，通过和ARM的协作，它开始给现有服务器市场的老大英特尔制造麻烦。高通已经生产出可满足拥有大型数据中心的顶级云企业（包括谷歌和亚马逊）的需求的服务器芯片，可实现大数据挖掘、基础设施以及机器学习等其他应用。高通希望能获得一些大型云玩家的垂青。上个月，该公司得到Alphabet的官方承认，成为其服务器芯片的主要供应商。

Qualcomm Inc. has taken upon itself to gradually infiltrate the server market. In collaboration with ARM Holding plc, it has started to cause minor headaches for Intel, the unopposed king of the server business.

The American chip maker has already made the server chips available to top tier cloud companies with mega data centers such as Google and Amazon. The chip is capable of carrying out big-data mining tasks, infrastructure, and machine learning, amongst other. Qualcomm is hoping that it gets the nod from big cloud players. Last month, the semiconductor company was on the verge of getting the official backing from Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), to be their prime supplier of server chips.

The company has refrained from publicly mentioning the companies that are already testing its server chips, which are developed using ARM architecture. But the Qualcomm and ARM alliance has a sinister undertone to it, which is unsettling for Intel. While the direct threat to Intel at the moment is minimal, the company is well aware of Qualcomm’s prowess in the smartphone business and would be slightly irked by the San Diego, California-based company’s willingness to invest heavily in the server chip business.

Qualcomm is not the first company that is developing chips on ARM’s architecture. The likes of Marvell, AppliedMicro, Broadcom and AMD amongst others already have ARM server chips available. It makes perfect business sense for ARM to license its architecture to multiple vendors simultaneously, as it increases the probability of an eventual challenger to Intel to emerge.

Recently, there has been a surge in the adoption of ARM servers, with AppliedMicro announcing that PayPal will utilize its ARM chips for its servers, and Baidu was another company which would be adopting Marvell’s ARM processor.

If the aforementioned companies can switch from Intel servers, there is a solid possibility that Qualcomm and ARM partnership can provide other companies with low-power solution for their data centers. If it is successful in delivering low energy costs to businesses, then that is an attractive option for cloud companies who are already competing on smaller margins.

The battle between Qualcomm/ARM and Intel has spewed outside the American borders, as both chipmakers recently announced they are partnering up with Chinese counterparts for the development of custom processors. QCOM has linked up with Guizhou Huaxintong Semi-Conductor Technology to license ARM-based server processors technology to Chinese businesses. While Intel, in a bid to thwart the challenge thrown at it in the Chinese server market has partnered up with Montage Technology Global Holdings Ltd. and Tsinghua University.

Intel should be more worried about its market share in China, as the current trajectory shows it has the potential to surpass the US server market. Big name companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon are already in process of building massive data centers. And if e-commerce behemoths such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baiuda are added into the mix, it is easy to comprehend just how big the server market can be.

While it is too early to conclude whether Qualcomm will be able to dethrone Int