2022 Chinese Server CPU Research Framework: Market Analysis and Architectural Trends

The article, excerpted from the "2022 Chinese Server CPU Research Framework," focuses on analyzing the 2022 CPU industry chain, market size, global market structure, and the main manufacturers.

x86 remains the primary architecture, while ARM is rapidly catching up; before 2018, x86‑based servers held over 99% of the global market, and by 2020 ARM’s share rose to 2.7%.

In the x86 domain, Intel continues to dominate with over 90% of the server market, but AMD has been eroding Intel’s lead, reaching more than 10% server shipment share by the first half of 2021; Apple is emerging as an ARM challenger.

The chapter also details the three major vendors' attempts in Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) and discusses future CPU evolution directions such as many‑core, heterogeneous, and integrated designs.

X86 market: Intel and AMD occupy the market, with Intel’s server share still above 96% and AMD growing from 1.8% in 2018 to 3.9% in 2019 (117% YoY). In laptops, AMD’s share rose from 10% to 14.6% while Intel fell by 5.1%. Desktop PC shares show AMD’s continued rise and the presence of Chinese vendor Zhaoxin.

Non‑x86 market: ARM dominates mobile devices with a 43.2% share, offering low power consumption and high efficiency. RISC‑V, MIPS, Power, Alpha, and SPARC are also mentioned, each with specific niche applications and market shares.

In the server sector, non‑x86 participants include Huawei (Kunpeng), Phytium, Qualcomm, and Amazon; Chinese Loongson is a key MIPS‑based server vendor.

Intel: Since the Pentium Pro, Intel has released platforms such as Thurley, Romley, Grantley, Purley, Whitley, and plans the Eagle Stream (2021). Intel follows a “Tick‑Tock” strategy—process upgrades on Tick, micro‑architecture upgrades on Tock. Product lines are segmented into Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze to meet diverse performance needs, and the CooperLake server CPU (14nm++, 8‑channel DDR4 ECC, PCIe 3.0) was launched in June 2020.

Intel’s UMA efforts include integrating CPU, GPU, NPU, and FPGA on a single SoC with a ring interconnect, shared LLC, and unified DRAM controller, enabling lower latency and higher bandwidth.

AMD: AMD’s 2022 flagship EPYC Genoa server (Zen 4, 96 cores) and the upcoming 128‑core EPYC Bergamo (Zen 4c) aim for a ~15% global server market share. AMD also participates in ARM, MIPS, Power, and RISC‑V ecosystems. The article reviews AMD’s APU history, the HSA Foundation’s goals, and reasons for HSA’s decline, including lack of ecosystem support and competitive disadvantages.

Apple: Apple’s M1 chip, launched in November 2020, is based on UMA, integrates CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and unified memory on a 5 nm process, delivering high performance per watt. The M1 Ultra, announced in March 2023, combines two M1 Max dies via UltraFusion, doubling hardware metrics and performance.

The article concludes with a copyright notice requiring attribution to the original author and source.