What a colossal waste of money and resources.
As reported by Reuters, NVIDIA is discreetly engaged in the development of ARM-based CPUs designed explicitly for personal computers, with high expectations of them venturing into the CPU market.
Alleged “insiders” have relayed to Reuters that NVIDIA is presently immersed in the development of PC processing units built on the ARM architecture. These forthcoming NVIDIA CPUs are expected to provide compatibility with the Windows operating system. This strategic shift into the CPU domain aligns with Microsoft’s substantial endeavors to enhance its ARM architecture support for its systems.
Notably, this development comes at a time when Qualcomm is on the verge of introducing its Snapdragon X Elite processor designed for PCs.
At present, only Qualcomm possesses exclusive privileges for crafting ARM-based processors intended for Windows operating systems. Nonetheless, this exclusive arrangement is slated to conclude next year, shedding light on the increased enthusiasm from NVIDIA.
NVIDIA intended on buying ARM from SoftBank for the grand sum of $40 Billion dollars back in September 2020, however their bid to buy them outright eventually fell flat and was promptly terminated over a year later. Their bid to buy ARM was rightfully blocked due to fears of monopolization and restriction of access to the ARM architecture.
I would imagine that NVIDIA CEO, Jensen Huang sees great potential in entering the CPU market, which is utterly dominated by Intel and AMD x86 based processing units, but I still question the decision to hop on board the fledgling ARM bandwagon instead of devoting resources and development towards RISC-V and semi-custom FPGAs which are certainly bound to destroy ARM in terms of actual potential but efficiency as well.
Companies such as Tenstorrent, headed by the likes of Jim Keller, an iconic name in the world of CPU architect design are hedging their bets on the future of computing being built on RISC-V.
Jim Keller, the CEO of Tenstorrent, previously disclosed the company’s performance projections for its Ascalon processor core, comparing them to competitors such as AMD’s Zen 5, Amazon’s Graviton 3, and Nvidia’s Grace Hopper.
While Tenstorrent’s Ascalon is anticipated to lead in terms of integer performance per watt, a noteworthy observation is that Tenstorrent foresees AMD’s Zen 5 as the frontrunner in raw integer throughput.
According to Tenstorrent’s forecasts, the Ascalon CPU core is expected to outperform Intel’s Sapphire Rapids (7.45 points), Nvidia’s Grace (7.44 points), and AMD’s Zen 4 (6.80 points) by a significant margin. However, AMD’s Zen 5 is projected to achieve an impressive 8.84 points, solidifying its position as the ultimate leader in integer performance during 2024-2025.
In fact, Keller predicts that AMD’s Zen 5 will outpace the current-generation Zen 4 by 30% in integer workloads.
NVIDIA needs to save the CPU market, which has been plagued with stable prices for several generations with AMD and Intel x86 processors which is concerning to say the least.
NVIDIA appears eager to enter the elusive CPU market, where they would be free to introducing incremental upgrades, exclusive software solutions locked to boost sales, and doubling CPU prices generation over generation.
In their endeavors, NVIDIA always strives to prioritize the consumers consumers regardless of whichever market they’ve got ventured interests into.
