Microsoft launches Israel-developed cloud-server chip

Microsoft yesterday launched a chip and chip for its cloud servers, developed in Israel, that are intended to allow them to make modifications to the Azure cloud system for customers on demand, while saving on the costs of purchasing chips from third-party suppliers, such as Nvidia and Intel.

The move mirrors Amazon’s purchase of the Graviton chip from Israel’s Annapurna Labs, which is currently used in the database of AWS data centers and lowers its cloud service costs. However, unlike the retail giant, Microsoft has not yet released a server core processor or GPU – an accelerator card that helps streamline various activities and contains a programmable chip (FPGA), much like the AWS Nitro card is meant to lighten the load and Microsoft’s control over various applications, such as running virtual servers or certain storage operations.

Microsoft still needs Intel and AMD In addition to Microsoft and Amazon, Google is also developing its own chip operations and even hired Uri Frank, a former Intel executive, for this. Globes has learned that last night’s e-card launch was also the biggest moment yet for Microsoft’s chip development center in Israel, which is mostly located in Haifa and has been developing hardware technologies for the Azure cloud system for four years. Although it has been responsible for a small number of products already integrated into Azure, this is the first major release of a product from the development center. The accelerator card was launched last night as part of Microsoft’s announcements titled “Azure Boost” – hardware upgrades launched alongside new managed services that allow it to adapt its services faster to enterprise customers, according to each customer’s needs and the price they are willing to pay, such as network management (networks), information storage and backup, Internet services and hosting (hosting). In this way, clients can also be upgraded more quickly without waiting for hardware improvements.

In the long run, the new development may make it unnecessary to adopt Nvidia data centers (under the brand DPU) and Intel (under the brand IPU), but this does not mean that Microsoft is giving up the services of the two chip giants. Microsoft still needs Intel and AMD core processors built into its cards and servers, and Nvidia graphics processors that accelerate operations in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. In recent months, Microsoft has hired engineers in the US who specialize in ARM, the core technology that rivals Intel, and is even teaming up with Ampere, based on similar technology, possibly to replace Intel and AMD chips in the distant future.

A high percentage of R&D engineers from the Arab sector

According to LinkiedIn, Microsoft has 20 hardware engineers in Israel recruited from companies such as Intel, Mellanox (Nvidia), Qualcomm, nTrig, and IBM. In its activities in Haifa, Microsoft employs some university graduates who do not have previous experience. Microsoft’s hardware operations in Israel also employ a small number of engineers at its subsidiary on Shaul Hamelish Street in Tel Aviv. Microsoft’s hardware operations are managed from the company’s headquarters in Redmond, near Seattle.

Globes also learned that Microsoft employs a higher percentage of engineers from the Arab sector in its Israeli hardware operations, compared to other companies. “At Microsoft Israel R&D, there are working men and women from across the country working in collaboration with global teams to create the new software and hardware that the Microsoft cloud will run on,” said Ari Cohen, President of the Microsoft Azure Hardware Group (Azure Core Compute). “At this time, it’s amazing to see how collaboration can impact hundreds of millions of users around the world.”

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on July 19, 2023.

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