Powering HPC with next-generation CPUs

From genomics to AI, CPUs continue to lead high-performance computing by offering unmatched flexibility, reliability, and scale, says Microsoft Azure's Evan Burness and Intersect360 Research's Addison Snell. For all the excitement around GPUs--the workhorses of today's AI revolution--the central processing unit (CPU) remains the backbone of high-performance computing (HPC). CPUs still handle 80% to 90% of HPC workloads globally, powering everything from climate modeling to semiconductor design. Far from being eclipsed, they're evolving in ways that make them more competitive, flexible, and indispensable than ever. The competitive landscape around CPUs has intensified. Once dominated almost exclusively by Intel's x86 chips, the market now includes powerful alternatives based on ARM and even emerging architectures like RISC-V.