Post by Admin on Oct 4, 2016 12:54:50 GMT -5
"Finally, Santa Clara–based Applied Micro is close to releasing its newest fire-breathing chip for servers, called X-Gene 3. Like X-Gene 1 and 2 before it, X-Gene 3 is ARM-based, competing head-to-head with Intel’s dominant Xeon x86 processors. ARM-based server chips aren’t new anymore, but they are still something of an anomaly. So much Web infrastructure has been built up around x86 servers that it’s hard to displace them, even with the compelling price/performance advantages offered by Applied Micro and others.
The initial X-Gene 3 part promises 32 ARM cores, each one a 64-bit implementation of the ARMv8 architecture. Recall that Applied Micro is one of the few “architectural licensees” of the ARM architecture, so the company designs its own private CPU cores; it doesn’t use any of the more familiar Cortex A-series cores that most of its competitors rely upon. That means that Applied Micro has to bear all of the development costs of a high-end 64-bit CPU program, but it also (presumably) reaps the benefits.
It’s too early to say how fast X-Gene 3 will be or how well it stacks up to Intel’s Xeon. Those benchmarks will have to wait until early next year, when the chip goes on sale. For now, Applied Micro is saying we should expect SPECint_rate scores in the mid-500 range, with a TDP (thermal design power) of 110–125 watts. If those estimates prove accurate, X-Gene 3 should be at least five times faster than its predecessor and in the same ballpark as some Xeon chips. And almost certainly cheaper. In short, very competitive.
The biggest difference between X-Gene 3 and Xeon – apart from the whole ARM-versus-x86 thing – is integration. Applied Micro makes integrated devices; Intel makes processors. Whereas many versions of Xeon have limited peripheral I/O, X-Gene 3 will have a whopping 42 lanes of PCIe 3.0 (all usable simultaneously), 4x SATA, 2x USB, 8x DDR4-2667 channels, RGMII, and probably a steam whistle interface.
Applied Micro has plenty of experience building ARM-based server chips with lots of onboard I/O, but the company has heretofore been conservative with its process technology and clock frequencies. X-Gene 3 is slated for TSMC’s 16nm process, so it’s quite a bit more aggressive. After two rounds of warmup, it’s now taking the fight directly to Intel."
www.eejournal.com/archives/articles/20160927-news/
The initial X-Gene 3 part promises 32 ARM cores, each one a 64-bit implementation of the ARMv8 architecture. Recall that Applied Micro is one of the few “architectural licensees” of the ARM architecture, so the company designs its own private CPU cores; it doesn’t use any of the more familiar Cortex A-series cores that most of its competitors rely upon. That means that Applied Micro has to bear all of the development costs of a high-end 64-bit CPU program, but it also (presumably) reaps the benefits.
It’s too early to say how fast X-Gene 3 will be or how well it stacks up to Intel’s Xeon. Those benchmarks will have to wait until early next year, when the chip goes on sale. For now, Applied Micro is saying we should expect SPECint_rate scores in the mid-500 range, with a TDP (thermal design power) of 110–125 watts. If those estimates prove accurate, X-Gene 3 should be at least five times faster than its predecessor and in the same ballpark as some Xeon chips. And almost certainly cheaper. In short, very competitive.
The biggest difference between X-Gene 3 and Xeon – apart from the whole ARM-versus-x86 thing – is integration. Applied Micro makes integrated devices; Intel makes processors. Whereas many versions of Xeon have limited peripheral I/O, X-Gene 3 will have a whopping 42 lanes of PCIe 3.0 (all usable simultaneously), 4x SATA, 2x USB, 8x DDR4-2667 channels, RGMII, and probably a steam whistle interface.
Applied Micro has plenty of experience building ARM-based server chips with lots of onboard I/O, but the company has heretofore been conservative with its process technology and clock frequencies. X-Gene 3 is slated for TSMC’s 16nm process, so it’s quite a bit more aggressive. After two rounds of warmup, it’s now taking the fight directly to Intel."
www.eejournal.com/archives/articles/20160927-news/
