Nine big names in computing are launching an effort to shape the evolution of servers, posing a challenge to Intel Corp.

The companies said Friday they would support technology developed by International Business Machines Corp. that promises to transfer data among components in servers up to 10 times faster than current circuitry. The companies hope to persuade others to adopt the technology.

The new technology aims to overcome an emerging bottleneck in handling some computing jobs. While standard microprocessors are getting faster, their calculations are frequently delayed by the need to fetch data from nearby memory chips, graphic chips or other components used to handle specialized tasks.

The problems are particularly acute, industry executives say, as computers tackle vast sets of data such as images or speech patterns.

"We are going to need to bring new computer architectures, new technologies to bear to service the needs of these new modern workloads," said Brad McCredie, an IBM vice president.

In addition to IBM, the other participants in the new effort are Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Dell Technologies Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Micron Technology Inc., Nvidia Corp., Mellanox Technologies Ltd. and Xilinx Inc.

Some companies are also pushing for more technical diversity. Intel not only supplies the vast majority of microprocessors used in servers, but also has heavily influenced or invented much of the technology that connects its chips with other components.

IBM has particular reasons to push for alternatives. International Data Corp. last month estimated that revenue from IBM's servers—powered by IBM's Power chips—declined 34% to $1.3 billion in the second quarter, while revenue from vendors using x86-based designs powered by Intel or AMD increased 7.3% to $11.6 billion.

After years of reserving Power-based chips for its own servers, IBM in 2013 began licensing the technology to other makers of chips and systems.

Google, which relies heavily on x86 systems it designs itself, became a prominent member of that group. In April, the web-search giant announced a plan to develop a server design based on IBM's latest Power chip. A Google spokeswoman said it also plans to use the IBM-developed communications technology as part of that design.

That technology is called CAPI, for coherent accelerator processor interface, and the new group promoting it is dubbed OpenCAPI. Coherent refers mainly to technology that allows multiple components—such as cards containing graphics chips and microprocessors—to share the same pool of memory chips.

Analysts say that approach has advantages in many computing jobs compared with the standard connections now used in most servers, which require graphics cards to use separate memory chips. But they question whether OpenCAPI will gain Intel's support. Intel has its own alternatives, including a coherent connection technology called QuickPath Interconnect.

"This is not something that Intel would want to participate in," said Patrick Moorhead, founder of the market research firm Moor Insights & Strategy.

An Intel spokesman said its own technology "provides our customers with the best combination of choice, performance, and total cost of ownership."

IBM said servers and related products based on OpenCAPI are expected in the second half of 2017.

Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 14, 2016 13:35 ET (17:35 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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