AMD spent quite some time this week going into the intricacies of its upcoming CPU platforms. While the highly-scalable Bulldozer architecture is destined for the desktop and server markets, the low-power Bobcat CPUs will be reserved for the netbook and ultraportable segments.
However, it appears that AMD's plans for the mobile platform may not end there.
An interview with the company's new CTO Donald Newell - who was recently poached from Intel - revealed that he felt it would be "foolish not to" investigate using Bobcat processors for low-end servers.
He made it clear that AMD was "definitely in the process of examining this as a design point," though added that "there's a lot more data to collect...it really depends on a number of factors".
Of course, such a move should come as little surprise. Some vendors are already offering servers with Intel's Atom and Via's Nano CPUs, and start-up Smooth-Stone garnered a lot of interest last week when it announced plans to develop low-power ARM CPUs for use in business systems.
Efficiency and heat-generation are major concerns in the server market, so lower-power processors seem like an obvious choice. Despite the limitations in terms of computational power, these chips are increasingly finding uses in applications where very-high performance isn't as important, such as cloud computing.
As the new server CTO, it's Newell's job to investigate all of the possible options when it comes to making use of these new architectures. However, if the Bobcat platform is able to deliver all that AMD has promised, don't be surprised if it starts turning up in a lot more than just next-generation netbooks.
