Mobile phone chips may become main focus if Qualcomm makes data-center server exit.
Qualcomm may leave the data-center server business, reports Bloomberg. Qualcomm did not confirm the rumor, when contacted for comment.
“The reports are valid,” said Linley Gwennap, president of The Linley Group, in a call with RCR Wireless News. “Qualcomm has a good [server chip] solution … but it is going to be a difficult struggle against Intel in the market. It requires a big investment to keep the technology going; if Qualcomm had the finances, it could be lucrative. Under current conditions, it will be difficult for them.”
Intel has the majority of the server chip market sewn up. If Qualcomm leaves the market, it may miss out on the lucrative market and it may also put itself in a bad position as the mobile phone chip market is slowing down, says Bloomberg News analyst Robert Fenner.
AMD would probably be the beneficiary if Qualcomm exits the market, as AMD is gaining good traction with its Epyc chip just announced, Gwennap said. Qualcomm does have a chance in the server market but probably in third place behind AMD. Because Intel has been so dominant in the data-center server market, some customers have wanted an alternative to Inte.l and AMD’s ARM-based chips were seen as more competitive with Intel’s chips.
Qualcomm has been going through cost-cutting measures that produced layoffs, while they await word from the regulatory agency in China if the NXP merger can go through.
Also, Matt Grob, the executive vice president of technology for Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and executive committee member, announced on Twitter that his last day at Qualcomm was May 7th. Grob worked at Qualcomm since 1991, when he started as an engineer, according to his bio on Qualcomm.com. He worked on early CDMA data services; the Globalstar satellite-based mobile voice and data system, 1x EV-DO high-speed wireless Internet access technology, and HDR (High Data Rate) program. He ran R&D and later became CTO from 2011 to 2017.
