Intel and Google Cloud have collaborated on a new chip designed for the data center, the E2000.

Intel has been working to expand its foundry services and regain its crown as the world’s dominant chipmaker. Data centers have traditionally been the company’s impregnable stronghold, but AMD and Arm have been making inroads. Intel has partnered with Google Cloud to create a new chip designed specifically for data centers.

The C3 machine series features 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors in private preview and debuts the Intel® infrastructure processing unit E2000, co-designed by Google and Intel.

Google has deployed the C3 machines and is poised to see significant performance increases.

Through its unique architectural approach, C3 machine instances deliver strong performance gains of up to 20% over previous generation C2 instances, enabling high performance computing and data-intensive workloads. Google Cloud C3 machines also pave the way for a future where infrastructure processing units (IPUs) are integrated into data centers, accelerating cloud infrastructures and maximizing performance.

Intel touted the first-of-its-kind nature of the new chips:

“We are pleased to have codesigned the first ASIC infrastructure processing unit with Google Cloud, which has now launched in the new C3 machine series. A first of its kind in any public cloud, C3 VMs will run workloads on 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors while they free up programmable packetprocessing to the IPUs securely at line rates of 200 gigabits per second,” says Nick McKeown, Intel senior vice president, Intel Fellow and general manager of Network and Edge Group. “This Intel and Google collaboration enables customers through infrastructure that is more secure, flexible and performant.”