Microsoft Boosts Bing Search Speed Via Custom Chips

LOS ANGELES — Microsoft has announced its adoption of a new technology for blinding fast search speeds, called “Catapult,” which the company hopes will put its Bing search engine into the market leadership role.

The move is the result of a looming technological brick wall, where the speed of traditional processor architectures is topping out — requiring innovation in order to surpass current performance thresholds — innovation that is coming in the form of new chipsets called FPGAs.

According to semiconductor industry leader Xilinx.com, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are semiconductor devices based around a matrix of configurable logic blocks (CLBs) that interface through programmable interconnects. FPGAs are reprogrammable for specific functions after manufacturing, distinguishing FPGAs from the common Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that are custom manufactured for specific tasks.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency miners, among other users, will be familiar with the use of ASIC based devices specifically designed to harvest digital coins, for example. FPGAs take this form of specialization a step further by allowing a rewrite of the chip’s instruction set to accommodate evolving uses.

As an indicator of the performance gains to be had from FPGAs, Microsoft’s new approach delivers a 40x boost in speed when processing its custom Bing algorithms over the use of standard CPUs, with the new system delivering search results twice as quickly as Bing’s current system.

“There’s not a whole lot of revolution left in CPUs,” AMD CTO Joe Macri told The Register. “[But] there’s a lot of evolution left.”

Reportedly, Microsoft may be able to reduce the size of Bing’s existing server farm, cutting the number of servers it uses by 50 percent or more — while still enjoying a substantial performance lift. This large reduction in overhead expenses will put the firm on a more solid financial footing as it moves to being a “cloud first” company.

For example, Microsoft reports that in a recent test, it was able to boost query throughput 95 percent, with only a negligible 10 percent in power consumption.

“We’re moving into an era of programmable hardware supporting programmable software,” Microsoft Research’s Doug Burger stated. “We’re just starting down that road now.”

Microsoft penned a paper for the International Symposium on Computer Architecture, entitled, “A Reconfigurable Fabric for Accelerating Large-Scale Datacenter Services,” which seeks to explain the tech giant’s response to the decline in improvement potential for single-core clock-rates, through the adoption of FPGAs.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine has spurred recent discussions in adult webmaster circles, where its use may provide at least a partial replacement for declining Google visitor volume. Adding one more plus to the list of reasons why this strategy may make sense is the upcoming massive performance increase that will no doubt improve the service’s popularity with consumers.

The FPGA-enhanced Bing search engine architecture is set to launch next year. 

View Document

Related:  

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

Strike 3 Holdings Sues Meta for Pirating Vixen Media Group Content to Train AI

Vixen Media Group owner Strike 3 Holdings filed suit in federal court this week, accusing Facebook parent company Meta of copyright infringement and alleging that Meta has extensively pirated VMG content to train its artificial intelligence models.

Pineapple Support, Streamate to Host 'Navigating Grief and Loss' Support Group

Pineapple Support and Streamate are hosting a free online support group to help performers cope with grief and loss.

Friday is Final AV Compliance Deadline in UK

Friday, July 25 marks U.K. media regulator Ofcom’s deadline for user-to-user services such as tube, cam and fan sites to implement its requisite “highly effective age assurance” measures for preventing minors from viewing adult content.

AEBN Publishes Popular Searches for May, June

AEBN has released the top search terms for the months of May and June from its straight and gay theaters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Ofcom Releases Transparency Reporting Guidelines

Ofcom, the U.K. media regulator, has made public its official guidance detailing how online service providers — including adult sites — will be required to publish annual transparency reports on their efforts to protect children from online harms.

New AV Rules Take Effect for Ireland-Based Sites

Ireland’s Online Safety Code came into force Monday, including a provision requiring adult sites headquartered in Ireland to implement age assurance measures beyond self-declaration.

XBIZ Amsterdam Calls on New Startups for 'Spotlight' Program

XBIZ is pleased to announce that its new “Startup Spotlight” programming will make its European premiere at XBIZ Amsterdam 2025, set to take place Sept. 2-5 at the Jakarta Hotel Amsterdam.

Texas Resumes AV Lawsuit Against Aylo Following SCOTUS Decision

A district court judge in Texas has unfrozen the state’s $1.6 million lawsuit against Aylo for allegedly failing to comply with age verification requirements, Bloomberg Law is reporting.

JuicyAds Wins Trademark Infringement Case Against Fraudulent Domain

JuicyAds has won its World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) case against a website using a similar domain to impersonate the company's site and defraud customers.

Anissa Kate, Jordan Starr Top AEBN for Q2 of 2025

AEBN has published its top-selling stars for the second quarter of 2025, with Anissa Kate landing atop the leaderboard for straight theaters and Jordan Starr heading up the gay rankings.

Show More