Microsoft Picks Xilinx for Over Half of Azure Servers
- Programable chips used to speed up servers in data centers
- Once niche semiconductor finding a broader set of uses
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Xilinx Inc., a maker of programmable chips increasingly being used in data centers, has won orders from Microsoft Corp.’s Azure cloud unit, replacing chips made by Intel Corp., according to people familiar with its plans.
Azure will use Xilinx chips as co-processors in more than half of its servers, winning business that has been an exclusive for Intel’s Altera unit, according to the people who asked not to be identified because the arrangement hasn’t been made public yet. Co-processors are chips that accelerate some functions to relieve the main processor in a server. A representative for Xilinx declined to comment.