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The deployment of ARM in the data center has been more words/vapor than reality for years. And if you try one of Scaleway’s baremetal ARM offerings, you realiz
by jgowdy 9y ago
The deployment of ARM in the data center has been more words/vapor than reality for years. And if you try one of Scaleway’s baremetal ARM offerings, you realize that using Intel CPUs is similar to using an SSD. Once you use it, it’s difficult to use something far slower. I’m not holding my breath on ARM in the Server, and I think we will see ARM desktops become widespread much sooner than ARM servers.
All that being said, I really want ARM servers to happen. One because a lifetime of x86 monoculture makes me curious about other platforms, and two because like AMD when they’re pushing hard, it’ll drive Intel out of their slumber. Intel’s major advancements come when they’re at least challenged if not threatened. Otherwise they do the equivalent of the old +25Mhz SKUs.
Still if I could have one wish, and it had to be CPU related, I would prefer to see an open ISA like RISC-V delivered by multiple vendors competing become widespread.
- axaxs 9y agoI think ARM is too broad to make such a claim at this point. The scaleway ARM servers are slow, but because they are using an older implementation. The A11 is proof ARM can be fast... fast enough for a server, at least.
- mtgx 9y agoScaleway uses the ARM cores of 2011. The cutting edge ARM server cores from Qualcomm and Cavium are a little faster than that. https://blog.cloudflare.com/arm-takes-wing/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/arm-takes-wing/
- bhouston 9y agoThese were impressive results from Qualcomm and Cloudflare. It seems like a serious threat to Intel. Cavium not so much for some reason, not sure why their numbers are so much worse that Qualcomm.
- rwmj 9y agoThat was the (somewhat old now) Cavium ThunderX. Cavium are prototyping ThunderX2 which has better performance.
- rwmj 9y agoQualcomm Centriq / Amberwing absolutely screams. Totally comparable to Intel Xeons.
- mrep 9y agoMaybe if you only look at the core cpu. Amazon bought Annapurna labs, an ARM chip maker, just for their data centers so they definitely are making progress.
- mankash666 9y agoThe performance has nothing to do with ISA and everything to do with caching - both size of caches and algorithms used. [1] [1]: https://www.nextplatform.com/2016/05/31/intel-lines-thunderx-arms-xeons/ https://www.nextplatform.com/2016/05/31/intel-lines-thunderx...
- mankash666 9y agoAm I getting downvoted for stating a fact. Is there someone here who believes Intel's ISA to be superior? Please cite the science behind such a claim
- rbanffy 9y agoOne great hurdle a new platform (or an old and now obscure) is credibility. Would you bet your success on POWER or SPARC? It's been years since I used either, to the point I'm much more comfortable predicting performance on EC2 instances than on actual metal for these. If I were trying to pull this off, I'd try to market units with failed cores deactivated at lower price points and help a workstation maker to the market with low priced units. If a high end fully functional chip performs like a Xeon E7, maybe they could have a couple units priced at Core i3 prices with similar performance. The idea would put these machines in the hands of key developers so they would help legitimize the platform.
- bufferoverflow 9y agoIt depends on what you need the server for. For many applications, including web, it's all about efficiency, not speed. And ARM can be quite efficient in both performance per dollar and per watt.
- dbcurtis 9y agoKeep an eye on power. ARM, in general, has a useful-work-per-watt number that is very hard for x86 to hit. If useful-work-per-rack-slot is equal, and the power is lower, ARM has a good way to attack the rack.
- nimos 9y agoDon't desktops make less sense than servers for ARM in terms of per core performance? Over my dead body would I use a 2.1-2.4ghz desktop chip but that seems to be what most cloud VPSs are around with ~3 for "high performance". Really curious to see what happens in the next 24-36 months with 7nm nodes from non-intel fabs coming online. Combined with huge investment from China into nand/dram I think were in for some pretty exciting price/performance options in the next couple years.