Google unveils the Axion custom Arm CPU for data centers

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Google has announced “Axion”, its first-ever custom Arm-based CPU designed and optimized for data centers. Designed using Arm’s Neoverse V2 CPU, it will compete with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Google Axion Arm chips claim high specs but are they production-ready?

Google published a detailed blog post about the new Axion, an Arm CPU. The search giant has made some tall claims about these chips.

Google claims Axion Arm CPUs perform 30% better than its fastest general-purpose Arm-based tools in the cloud. The company boasted these chips are 50% better than the most recent, comparable x86-based VMs (Virtual Machines). If that’s not impressive enough, Google added their new chips have 60% better energy efficiency than comparable X86-based instances (VMs).

Although Google hasn’t specifically named the competition, the company may be referring to Amazon and Microsoft products. Amazon launched its first-ever Arm-based Graviton chips back in 2018.

Microsoft was a little late to the party. The Windows OS maker’s Microsoft Azure cloud platform has VMs based on Ampere’s Arm servers since 2022.

It is important to note that Google hasn’t offered any documentation about the Axion chips. When probed about the technicalities, Google spokesperson Amanda Lam reportedly said,

“Technical documentation, including benchmarking and architecture details, will be available later this year.”

This strongly suggests Google’s Axion chips might not be production-ready yet. Google could be trying to create hype about the first-ever chips it has custom-built specifically for data centers. After all, processors and other hardware for data centers are acquired through long-term contracts, unlike consumer products, which are often bought in shops.

Google promises zero-modification workload transition

Google insists Axion CPUs are built on an open foundation. The company assures Google Cloud customers can migrate their existing workloads (that rely on Arm CPUs) with near-zero transition delay or modifications. Mark Lohmeyer, Google Cloud’s VP for computing and AI/ML infrastructure, explained,

“We recently contributed to the SystemReady Virtual Environment, which is Arm’s hardware and firmware interoperability standard that ensures common operating systems and software packages can run seamlessly in ARM-based systems. Through this collaboration, we’re accessing a broad ecosystem of cloud customers who have already deployed ARM-based workloads across hundreds of ISVs and open-source projects.”

Arm-based CPUs are often more affordable and energy-efficient than their X86-based counterparts. This makes Google’s timing about announcing its Axion chips interesting. The Wall Street Journal recently quoted Arms CEO Rene Haas, who had warned about the excessive energy usage of AI models. With these CPUs, Google Cloud might be trying to edge past Microsoft Azure’s x86-based VMs. Google recently launched a version of its Chrome web browser that natively supports Arm-based CPUs. Simply put, the search giant seems to be betting big on Arm architecture.



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