ARM Servers Aim Higher Despite Current Miniscule Market

From X-bit Labs: Servers equipped with ARM processors will gradually emerge in the marketplace from a near-nonexistent base, in the process furnishing stepped-up competition to reigning kingpin Intel Corp. in the server semiconductor market, according to a new report from IHS, a leading market tracker.

ARM server shipments will reach more than 5% penetration of the total server space by 2017, up from virtually zero last year. The growing share of ARM servers is in line with continued bright prospects for the overall server market, forecast to reach 13.1 million units by 2017. That number represents a five-year compound annual shipment growth of 6.5% from 9.8 million units in 2012. This year alone, total server shipments are projected to reach 10.1 million or 3.1% growth, with an even stronger 9.9% expansion forecast next year.

The overall server numbers include all segments of the industry including entry-level machines, enterprise servers, mainframes and supercomputers, blade servers, micro servers and cloud servers.

Within this active market, ARM server shipments are expected to enjoy their first big year in 2014, IHS predicts. Demand for low-power-consumption processors, along with the maturation of the server ecosystem, will help boost the penetration of ARM chips in the server industry, traditionally the stronghold of Intel.

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