Microsoft announced the Cobalt 200 processor as their next-generation cloud-native CPU for the Azure Cloud. The Cobalt 200 will feature 132 Arm Neoverse-V3 based cores.
The Azure Cobalt 200 is Microsoft’s next-generation Arm-based server CPU for cloud native workloads. Microsoft is talking up this new CPU as offering up to a 50% performance improvement over current Cobalt 100 processors. The first production Cobalt 200 servers are already running in Microsoft data centers while the general availability of Cobalt 200 in the Azure public cloud isn’t expected until sometime in 2026.
The Cobalt 200 is described in their announcement as:
“At the heart of every Cobalt 200 server is the most advanced compute silicon in Azure: the Cobalt 200 System-on-Chip (SoC). The Cobalt 200 SoC is built around the Arm Neoverse Compute Subsystems V3 (CSS V3), the latest performance-optimized core and fabric from Arm. Each Cobalt 200 SoC includes 132 active cores with 3MB of L2 cache per-core and 192MB of L3 system cache to deliver exceptional performance for customer workloads.
Power efficiency is just as important as raw performance. Energy consumption represents a significant portion of the lifetime operating cost of a cloud server. One of the unique innovations in our Azure Cobalt CPUs is individual per-core Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS). In Cobalt 200 this allows each of the 132 cores to run at a different performance level, delivering optimal power consumption no matter the workload. We are also taking advantage of the latest TSMC 3nm process, further improving power efficiency.”
The Cobalt 200 uses two chiplets each with 66 cores based on Arm Neoverse-V3. There is six memory channels per chiplet (12 channel DDR5 per socket), a data movement accelerator, compression and cryptography accelerator, and other new IP as part of this Azure Cobalt design. From the Microsoft announcement, the Azure Cobalt 200 servers can be found in a dual socket layout.
Those wanting to learn more about this latest Arm server SoC design can do so via the Microsoft.com announcement.
