Google introduces its first ARM processor, an innovation that promises to improve both the performance and the ecological footprint of its data centers.

Google Cloud announced at its flagship annual event, Google Cloud Next '24 in Las Vegas, the launch of its new Axion processors, based on the ARM architecture. This innovation is designed to bring significant improvements in terms of performance and energy efficiency to the company's data centers. This initiative demonstrates the commitment of major tech companies to developing their own hardware solutions.

Google Axion promises significantly higher performance than x86 processors.

Google Axion promises performance well beyond that of x86 processors. On paper, Google promises an increase of up to 50% compared to the latter, and up to 30% compared to the most powerful ARM instances currently available in the Cloud market.

Furthermore, Google Cloud highlights the exceptional energy efficiency of the Axion processor, which can exceed that of current generation x86 instances by up to 60%. This initiative is coupled with the company's commitment to facilitating the migration of existing workloads to the ARM architecture for its customers.

Google optimizes the performance of its processor by delegating specific tasks.

The Axion CPUs are based on ARM Neoverse V2 technology, which provides remarkable performance for a variety of workloads such as in-memory caches, open-source databases, multimedia processing (photo, video), as well as web services and applications.

To stand out, Google Axion incorporates Titanium, a microcontroller system that manages security and network operations. Additionally, the Hyperdisk solution, designed for even more demanding critical applications, offers a comprehensive range of data persistence and management features.

By leveraging these different systems, the Axion processor effectively delegates tasks, resulting in optimized performance. After being tested internally at Google, the processor will soon be available to tens of thousands of Google Cloud division customers. These customers will also have access to a range of ARM-compatible software and solutions via the Google Cloud Marketplace. It is reported that many Google Cloud customers, such as Snap, Datadog, CrowdStrike, Cybereason, and Broadcom, are eagerly awaiting the benefits of virtual machines based on Axion.