Huawei is attempting to move on from last year’s turbulence by announcing a new server and chipset at its Shenzhen media conference.
The ARM-based CPU is called Kunpeng 920, and Huawei is claiming it’s the highest performance chipset in the industry. In addition to the 64-core chip, Huawei also announced its new ARM-based TaiShan server.
Huawei said it developed the new chipset and server in response to the growing use of big data, edge computing and artificial intelligence.
While Huawei has a history of working with Intel, it decided to develop its own chipset and server based on the ARMv8 architecture license.
“We believe that, with the advent of the intelligent society, the computing market will see continuous growth in the future. Currently, the diversity of applications and data is driving heterogeneous computing requirements,” said Huawei’s William Xu, director of Huawei’s board and chief strategy marketing officer, in a prepared statement. “The Kunpeng 920 CPU and TaiShan servers newly released by Huawei are primarily used in big data, distributed storage, and ARM-native applications. We will work with global partners in the spirit of openness, collaboration, and shared success to drive the development of the ARM ecosystem and expand the computing space, and embrace a diversified computing era.”
Xu also said that Huawei would continue to work with Intel.
Huawei said it improved the processor performance by optimizing branch prediction algorithms, increasing the number of OP units and improving the memory subsystem architecture. Huawei claimed that at typical frequency, the Kunpeng 920 CPU scored over 930 in the SPECint Benchmarks test, which is 25% higher than the industry benchmark.
Huawei said the TaiShan server would enable computing platforms with high performance and low power consumption for enterprises. For example, in big data scenarios, the TaiShan servers can be tuned for optimal multi-core high concurrency and resource scheduling to deliver a 20% computing performance boost.
Last year some of Huawei’s telecom gear was banned from being used in the United States. Huawei also faced similar restrictions on its 5G equipment in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. Near the end of last year, Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou, who is also the Huawei founder’s daughter, was arrested in Canada.
