Microsoft plans to announce the launch of its renowned Cobalt processors for the Azure cloud platform at the forthcoming Build conference. These chips have specifically been designed to cater to the needs of cloud computing and are expected to significantly enhance performance. According to Tech Crunch reports, Cobalt is 40% more effective than competing ARM chips.
Cobalt is a 64-bit ARM architecture-based processor with 128 cores. Scott Guthrie, Microsoft’s vice president, articulates that it is 40% faster than similar solutions from competitors, particularly Amazon’s AWS Graviton chips. It will accelerate a vast range of tasks, including those related to artificial intelligence and processing large data volumes for large language models (LLM).
Companies like Adobe and Snowflake are already amongst the first customers of Microsoft. They will obtain access to the chips’ test versions under a public beta program. In addition to Cobalt, AMD Instinct MI300X graphic accelerators will also be available for Azure. These are currently considered the most efficient for machine learning tasks, according to Microsoft. Guthrie has referred to MI300X as the “most economical graphic processor for Azure OpenAI at present“.
A decrease in prices for the usage of large language models in Azure is one of the other announcements expected at the Build exhibition. Although it is unclear which specific models are being referred to, potential services from OpenAI could be considered.
Furthermore, Microsoft intends to showcase an upgraded Fabric analytic platform, which supports data streaming. Fabric and Snowflake are also expected to partner up to enhance compatibility and data migration. Additionally, the integration of Azure and GitHub Copilot based on natural language will be announced for developers. The Microsoft Build event will take place next week.
