Microsoft rolled out new custom chips on Tuesday, aiming to power workloads in its Azure cloud and boost security; specifically, it unveiled a new hardware accelerator able to manage data processing, networking, and storage-related tasks.

The Azure Boost DPU is the first data processing unit from Microsoft, designed for "data-centric workloads with high efficiency and low power," the company said. Microsoft expects future DPU-equipped Azure servers to run storage workloads at four times the performance of existing servers while consuming three times less power.

Designed for scale-out, composable workloads on Azure, the Azure Boost DPU delivers efficiency across storage, networking, acceleration, and more for its cloud infrastructure," Microsoft wrote in a blog post shared with TechCrunch.

Of course, those benchmarks tell us nothing. On which workloads is the Azure Boost DPU more power efficient, and compared to what hardware does it run faster, precisely? Microsoft did not say so, nor did it indicate when Azure customers will see these gains.

The Azure Boost DPU may have its roots in Fungible, a DPU maker Microsoft acquired last December. Microsoft reportedly paid about $190 million for the company, which has its origins in former engineers of Apple and Juniper Networks. Upon acquisition, the Fungible team joined Microsoft's infrastructure engineering division.

A DPU is an Application Specific Integrated Circuit  that can perform some data processing tasks that would include security functions and routing of data packet flows. They are used to help take the workload from the CPUs as well as other chips on core computing regarding a specific workload, including AI workloads.

The DPU market has gained prominence over the last few years. The company Nvidia first introduced its BlueField line of DPUs in 2019, and AMD began selling its Pensando DPUs only in 2022. Amazon Web Services' (AWS) Nitro cards offer DPU-like functionality, and Google has collaborated with Intel to build chips that perform many of the same functions as DPUs.

Those efficiency gains that DPUs could deliver are good news for hyperscalers, which, driven by the need to expand their cloud infrastructure through AI, keep building ever-larger and power-hungry data centers. Microsoft said in 2022 that it would pay $800 million more in data center energy costs as a result of its growing consumption.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has argued that CPUs, GPUs, and DPUs will form the foundation of data centers. Under his vision, CPUs will handle general processing, GPUs will power accelerated computing, and DPUs will manage data flow.

Should the interest in DPUs remain steady, the market for DPU chips could be worth $5.5 billion by 2031.

Custom security chip
Microsoft also unveiled the Azure Integrated Hardware Security Module (HSM). "A new dedicated security chip for the cloud", the Azure Integrated HSM lets signing keys (digital cryptographic signatures, basically) and encryption keys (strings of bits used to encrypt data) be contained in a secure module "without compromising performance or increasing latency," Microsoft said.

"Azure Integrated HSM will be installed in every new server in Microsoft's data centers starting next year to increase protection across Azure's hardware fleet for both confidential and general-purpose workloads," Microsoft said.

The Azure Integrated HSM is Microsoft's second security chip after Pluton, a consumer-focused chip built directly into Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm processors. It is also the company's response to its cloud competitors proprietary offerings: AWS' Nitro handles certain security functions, while Google has a security chip embedded in its Google Cloud servers called Titan.

Custom silicon can offer improved security, but it is far from a silver bullet. In 2020, researchers discovered an "unfixable" flaw in Apple's T2 security chip that could unlock Macs to the very threats the chip was supposed to prevent. Microsoft offered no information on vulnerability testing around the Azure Integrated HSM, but hopefully that will come as the chip gets closer to release.

After damaging government reports and high-profile hacks, Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said security is now the company's top priority.

In today's rapidly evolving threat landscape, changing driven by global events and the advance of AI, security must be top of mind, said Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft's CVP of security, in a post shared with TechCrunch. "New attack methods challenge our security posture, pushing us to reimagine how the global security community defends organizations.