NVIDIA has hinted that they may launch a standalone version of the ARM-based Grace CPU for the server market if given the opportunity. To recap, this advanced computing chip combines Grace CPU and Hopper GPU chips to take full advantage of the entire AI and data center ecosystem. By consolidating CPU+GPU into a single design, NVIDIA wants to provide customers with a complete set of options to focus on different types of workloads in the industry.
Grace is a dual-chip package, with GPU+CPU and pure CPU. However, this limits customers to some extent as they are now been"Restrictions"You'll have to use the Hopper architecture or two CPUs, and they may only need one chip. Nvidia does have plans to offer its high-end Grace CPUs separately, though.
Nvidia's current GPU roadmap still shows that the company wants to expand its superchip design into CPU+GPU suites with upcoming architectures such as GH200, GB200 and GX200, although we may be present at the upcoming GTC, where the company is bringing the Grace CPU or its successor to the standalone server space.
Speaking at the Wells Fargo event, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress was asked if the company has plans to offer the Grace architecture in standalone CPUs for the server industry, and the answer was very clear, and here is what she had to say:
Will there be subsequent versions of Grace Hopper, GH200, GH300, etc.?Or is there only one grace?Is there a market for Nvidia's ARM-based CPUs?
It's possible to just roll out Grace. We may see new product offerings in the data center, and we may also see opportunities for Grace.While NVIDIA's CFO hasn't officially confirmed it yet, it seems that the company has plans to offer the Grace CPU separately from the future of the industry. In terms of Grace CPU's performance, it has a total of 144 cores (72 Arm Neoverse v2 per chip), supports 960 GB of LPDDR5X memory, has a raw bandwidth of 1 TBS, and has a combined power consumption of 500W. Other specs include 117 MB** cache and 58 Gen5 lanes, all using TSMC 4N process nodes.Colette Kress (Chief Financial Officer, Nvidia Corporation).
Given the depth of NVIDIA AI products already in the market, providing Grace CPUs in standalone packages could change the way computing is done in data centers. In addition, it also means that x86 solutions from companies like Intel and Nvidia will face stiffer competition, as official benchmarks show that the efficiency and performance of Grace CPUs are highly competitive with similar products in the industry. Servers aren't the only market Nvidia plans to launch discrete CPUs, and the company expects to enter the PC consumer market by 2025 with an ARM-based solution.