Beijing, November 13, 2019 – Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) announced today that Microsoft is internally deploying production-grade servers based on Marvell ThunderX2® server processor products for Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft’s Project Olympus server features Marvell ThunderX2® Arm64 processors

Marvell cooperates with Microsoft and Ingrasys, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fii/Foxconn Technology Group, to jointly design and deploy ThunderX2 systems compatible with Microsoft’s next-generation cloud hardware platform Project Olympus. The Microsoft Project Olympus platform is open source through the Open Computing Project (OCP).

The collaboration between Marvell and Microsoft began at the OCP US Summit in March 2017, when the two companies jointly demonstrated cloud service workloads running on ThunderX2. This workload was developed exclusively for Microsoft’s internal use. Later in the same year, the two companies released a detailed description of the ThunderX2 server motherboard to the open source community through the OCP, including block diagrams, management subsystems, power management, FPGA card support, IO connectors, and physical specifications, so that other members can take full advantage of it. This innovative platform architecture meets the needs of their workloads. In this collaboration, Marvell and Microsoft have joined forces to successfully apply the Arm®-based Thunder X2 server to Microsoft’s internal workloads.

ThunderX2 is Marvell’s second-generation Armv8-based server processor that supports dual-socket configurations and is optimized to provide the highest computing performance on Arm servers while balancing IO connectivity, memory bandwidth, and capacity. The Marvell® ThunderX2 processor family is fully compliant with the Armv8-A architecture specification and optimized to deliver outstanding memory bandwidth and capacity to boost computing performance. This processor takes full advantage of the low power consumption, high energy efficiency and optimized functional architecture of the Armv8 architecture, making it ideal for running workloads on high-concurrency cloud platforms and computing-intensive application scenarios.

Ben Ting, Vice President of Engineering and Product Operations of Hongbai Technology, said: “Marvell and Hongbai Technology have jointly launched a very attractive platform solution that can meet the most stringent requirements for quality and performance of Microsoft Azure infrastructure. This time Deploying ThunderX2 servers in Azure has enabled our cooperation in system design, firmware development, standard verification, and application optimization to reach unprecedented heights. We also look forward to the implementation of Microsoft Project Olympus, which will continue to generate continuous impact on the entire open source computing project community Positive influence of sex.”

“Microsoft’s deployment of Marvell’s ThunderX2 solutions in Azure further strengthens our industry position as the company with the most widely deployed Arm-based server solutions in the world,” said Gopal Hegde, vice president and general manager of the Server Processor Business Group at Marvell semiconductor. Deploying to the Azure infrastructure and application software environment is another important milestone, marking the maturity of the ThunderX2 platform.”

Dr. Leendert van Doorn, senior engineer of Microsoft Azure, said: “The combination of Microsoft Project Olympus cloud hardware and Marvell ThunderX2 server processor is a milestone, which improves the development capabilities of Arm64 products in Azure cloud infrastructure. Microsoft is committed to promoting platform innovation, Our further support for processor architecture is part of our implementation of industry leadership and best practices.Cooperation with Marvell and Hongbai Technology brings the most complete and highest performance Arm server solutions for our internal use. “