- Microsoft says Cobalt 200 delivers 50% performance improvement over Cobalt 100 systems
- Microsoft is focusing on data analytics and web services using workload-centric design methods.
- Per-core DVFS regulates power consumption independently across all 132 cores.
Microsoft introduced Cobalt 200a new Arm-based processor designed for cloud services in Azure.
The company says the chip, which replaces the Cobalt 100 and remains compatible with existing deployments, was designed using workload patterns observed in Azure environments rather than standard industry benchmarks, and delivers performance improvements of up to 50%.
These workloads include data analytics, web applications, network services, and systems that rely heavily on storage access and are focused on real-world usage.
Efficiency-focused architecture and power management
Cobalt 200 includes per-core dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), which allows each of the 132 cores to operate at different performance levels, thereby reducing unnecessary power consumption.
The chip is manufactured on a 3nm process and is positioned as part of a broader strategy to manage energy costs in data centers.
Compression, encryption and decompression tasks are performed by special accelerators, freeing up CPU cycles and reduce compute costs for services like Azure SQL.
Microsoft says these accelerators come as a result of internal analysis showing that more than 30% of workloads depend on these operations.
The CPU includes a special memory controller that encrypts memory by default without significantly reducing performance.
It also implements HandA confidential computing architecture for isolating virtual machine memory from the hypervisor and host. operating system.
Cobalt 200 systems integrate the Azure hardware security module to manage encrypted keys.
It also supports compliance requirements with Key Vault, which handles the availability and scaling of cryptographic keys, and Azure Boost, which handles offloading network and remote storage tasks to reduce latency and increase throughput.
Microsoft is positioning the Cobalt 200 as part of a broader platform, rather than as a standalone chip, powering systems in global Azure regions, with expanded availability planned for 2026.
The company plans to deploy servers across its entire fleet, with operational hardware already running in some data centers.
This announcement appears to favor lower power consuming systems as data center energy demand increases.
Organizations may prioritize systems that reduce operating costs, especially those that rely on distributed computing environments. workstationsGPU clusters and tiered deployments that combine CPU-based workloads with accelerated workloads.
However, the actual performance assessment of the Cobalt 200 will depend on independent comparisons of competing cloud processors once customer access expands.
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