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I've been running Fedora (21 - 32 as of now) on HP MicroServer N54L Gen7 since 2014, it has a relatively weak AMD Turion II Neo N54L Dual Core processor but it'

I've been running Fedora (21 - 32 as of now) on HP MicroServer N54L Gen7 since 2014, it has a relatively weak AMD Turion II Neo N54L Dual Core processor but it's been working reliably over the years, still strong (not really when compiling, e.g. ZFS modules via DKMS). DIYed a AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) + Epox 8RDA3+ (AVC 112C86 fan) desktop, overheating was a headache, overclocking even made it worse, finally that motherboard didn't survive overheating problem (so AMD CPU cooling has always been my concern lol). Good to see consumers are more willing to accept AMD after all those Intel Meltdown & spectre, etc. drama (I was working as Tech Lead for XenServer support team, to some extent I knew how bad it negatively impacted from that specific PoV). Personally I'll prefer AMD when buying new hardware.

threeseed 6y ago
It's actually going to be a great era for consumers. AMD and Intel in strong competition improves the quality and diversity of the CPUs and most importantly reduces their prices. We saw this almost immediately when the 10980xe which is largely identical to the 9980xe was sold for 50% of the price as a result of the 3950x/3960x. In the server space however AMD will likely remain as a minor player as ARM inevitably starts to find its way in as a result of its far superior price/performance ratio.
- dannyw 6y ago
  ARM doesn’t do x64. I have no doubts that it will get higher, but if you don’t wanna introduce a new CPU architecture, it’s Intel or AMD.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    At some point you’ll recompile for ARM…
  - Rantenki 6y ago
    That's not ... entirely true (edit: I see I misread you, it doesn't do X64, but there is 64 bit ARM in the form of AARCH64): https://www.edn.com/arm64-vs-arm32-whats-different-for-linux-programmers/ https://www.edn.com/arm64-vs-arm32-whats-different-for-linux... You can get Arm64 linux workstations now. https://www.anandtech.com/show/15733/ampere-emag-system-a-32core-arm64-workstation https://www.anandtech.com/show/15733/ampere-emag-system-a-32...
- zrm 6y ago
  > In the server space however AMD will likely remain as a minor player as ARM inevitably starts to find its way in as a result of its far superior price/performance ratio. Interestingly that's starting to evaporate. Epyc 7702 is only ~3 watts per core, with Zen2 cores. That's crazy high performance per watt. If ARM is still more efficient at all it's not by very much, and then it has worse per-thread performance and has to emulate legacy code. There are probably going to be places where ARM makes sense in the datacenter, but that doesn't look like an easy path to taking over entirely.
  - ksec 6y ago
    In terms of Workload per Watts on AWS, cost per workload, or the actual cost of the processor the Graviton still has a lead. ( Although that was when compared to Zen 1 ) It wont be taken over any time soon. But I suspect the server market for x86 to shrink by quite a bit over the next 10 years. Anyway where is Zen 3!
- som33 6y ago
  >It's actually going to be a great era for consumers. It's actually NOT, AMD, Intel, MS and big media companies are planning to put hardware DRM inside the computer. The last 23 years of PC gaming we've seen the PC become a closed platform because of STEAM and mmo's, aka any client-server software you buy mean's you no longer own your PC or have any personal privacy because the program is constantly beaming data back to the mothership. So no, they are going to turn the PC into locked down platform like mobile where you never see the exe files, they are trying to kill off local applications they want to "end piracy" by literally removing any control you have over your PC. That's what Windows 10 DRM is about, UWP - encrypted computing, vm's, etc. Mean's it will be increasingly impossible to preserve old software because they are not honest binaries. Don't think so? That is what Irdeto is all about, they've been encrypting PC game files for a while now and the future of PC gaming looks grim with always online drm, encrypted files because of micro-transactions and in game stores. https://irdeto.com/ https://irdeto.com/ So no... the future looks locked down and dystopian to anyone who's been paying attention, what we're gaining in performance we're losing in freedom and increasing levels of DRM, VM's and encrypted software.
  - salawat 6y ago
    Don't know why you're getting downvoted. I've been trying to keep an old Vaio Z series ticking along with Windows 7 using a community hybrid graphics driver. Lo and behold, you can't even do that anymore without basically hacking the windows kernel from the bootloader because Micro$oft is too busy sucking up to the movie/streaming industry to allow regular users to keep their things running. The kernel will not let you load an unsigned driver and give you the option to overrule their BS setup, even if you have looked at what the driver to determine what it is doing is correct, and are willing to use it. B2B is the new policy setter. Businesses are the new first class User, and everyone else is just a Luser. To hell with em' all I say. If I could I'd find a way to crack their DRM anti-end-user circuitry and share it with the world out of spite. I liked that damn laptop. I still like it. I'm going to figure out how to pull off that bootloader thing, and I'm putting it out there for other Z series owners. You shouldn't have to fight a computer damnit! And yes, I could swap to Linux, but that isn't really the point. The DRM crap moving to hardware means everyone has to deal with it. Furthermore, everything else I run is already Linux, and that laptop is my token Windows machine, which has quite a bit of sentimental value, as it was one of the machines that got me through college. Anyway. Consider my hat firmly in the outraged bucket. This is ridiculous. Worthy of ridicule in every sense of the word. The entire software/hardware industry should look at the industries or actors asking for it, and tell them to work on getting on better terms with their users. The majority won't misbehave if you just provide a reasonable experience. About the only two industries that have a reasonable claim to needing these types of features are National Security, medical devices, and grudgingly finance. That's it. Even then, I have difficulty swallowing the application, because it just leads to people trying to pry the lid open ever more. If they aren't going to give people the capability to opt out of this draconian nightmare, I want nothing to do with them.
- imtringued 6y ago
  A decade ago ARM was a decade ago from entering the server market. Today it is still a decade away from entering the server market.
dannyw 6y ago
Those are all previous and mediocre AMD architectures though. The Zen line is where things pop off.

threeseed 6y ago

It's actually going to be a great era for consumers. AMD and Intel in strong competition improves the quality and diversity of the CPUs and most importantly reduces their prices. We saw this almost immediately when the 10980xe which is largely identical to the 9980xe was sold for 50% of the price as a result of the 3950x/3960x. In the server space however AMD will likely remain as a minor player as ARM inevitably starts to find its way in as a result of its far superior price/performance ratio.

dannyw 6y ago
ARM doesn’t do x64. I have no doubts that it will get higher, but if you don’t wanna introduce a new CPU architecture, it’s Intel or AMD.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  At some point you’ll recompile for ARM…
- Rantenki 6y ago
  That's not ... entirely true (edit: I see I misread you, it doesn't do X64, but there is 64 bit ARM in the form of AARCH64): https://www.edn.com/arm64-vs-arm32-whats-different-for-linux-programmers/ https://www.edn.com/arm64-vs-arm32-whats-different-for-linux... You can get Arm64 linux workstations now. https://www.anandtech.com/show/15733/ampere-emag-system-a-32core-arm64-workstation https://www.anandtech.com/show/15733/ampere-emag-system-a-32...
zrm 6y ago
> In the server space however AMD will likely remain as a minor player as ARM inevitably starts to find its way in as a result of its far superior price/performance ratio. Interestingly that's starting to evaporate. Epyc 7702 is only ~3 watts per core, with Zen2 cores. That's crazy high performance per watt. If ARM is still more efficient at all it's not by very much, and then it has worse per-thread performance and has to emulate legacy code. There are probably going to be places where ARM makes sense in the datacenter, but that doesn't look like an easy path to taking over entirely.
- ksec 6y ago
  In terms of Workload per Watts on AWS, cost per workload, or the actual cost of the processor the Graviton still has a lead. ( Although that was when compared to Zen 1 ) It wont be taken over any time soon. But I suspect the server market for x86 to shrink by quite a bit over the next 10 years. Anyway where is Zen 3!
som33 6y ago
>It's actually going to be a great era for consumers. It's actually NOT, AMD, Intel, MS and big media companies are planning to put hardware DRM inside the computer. The last 23 years of PC gaming we've seen the PC become a closed platform because of STEAM and mmo's, aka any client-server software you buy mean's you no longer own your PC or have any personal privacy because the program is constantly beaming data back to the mothership. So no, they are going to turn the PC into locked down platform like mobile where you never see the exe files, they are trying to kill off local applications they want to "end piracy" by literally removing any control you have over your PC. That's what Windows 10 DRM is about, UWP - encrypted computing, vm's, etc. Mean's it will be increasingly impossible to preserve old software because they are not honest binaries. Don't think so? That is what Irdeto is all about, they've been encrypting PC game files for a while now and the future of PC gaming looks grim with always online drm, encrypted files because of micro-transactions and in game stores. https://irdeto.com/ https://irdeto.com/ So no... the future looks locked down and dystopian to anyone who's been paying attention, what we're gaining in performance we're losing in freedom and increasing levels of DRM, VM's and encrypted software.
- salawat 6y ago
  Don't know why you're getting downvoted. I've been trying to keep an old Vaio Z series ticking along with Windows 7 using a community hybrid graphics driver. Lo and behold, you can't even do that anymore without basically hacking the windows kernel from the bootloader because Micro$oft is too busy sucking up to the movie/streaming industry to allow regular users to keep their things running. The kernel will not let you load an unsigned driver and give you the option to overrule their BS setup, even if you have looked at what the driver to determine what it is doing is correct, and are willing to use it. B2B is the new policy setter. Businesses are the new first class User, and everyone else is just a Luser. To hell with em' all I say. If I could I'd find a way to crack their DRM anti-end-user circuitry and share it with the world out of spite. I liked that damn laptop. I still like it. I'm going to figure out how to pull off that bootloader thing, and I'm putting it out there for other Z series owners. You shouldn't have to fight a computer damnit! And yes, I could swap to Linux, but that isn't really the point. The DRM crap moving to hardware means everyone has to deal with it. Furthermore, everything else I run is already Linux, and that laptop is my token Windows machine, which has quite a bit of sentimental value, as it was one of the machines that got me through college. Anyway. Consider my hat firmly in the outraged bucket. This is ridiculous. Worthy of ridicule in every sense of the word. The entire software/hardware industry should look at the industries or actors asking for it, and tell them to work on getting on better terms with their users. The majority won't misbehave if you just provide a reasonable experience. About the only two industries that have a reasonable claim to needing these types of features are National Security, medical devices, and grudgingly finance. That's it. Even then, I have difficulty swallowing the application, because it just leads to people trying to pry the lid open ever more. If they aren't going to give people the capability to opt out of this draconian nightmare, I want nothing to do with them.
imtringued 6y ago
A decade ago ARM was a decade ago from entering the server market. Today it is still a decade away from entering the server market.

dannyw 6y ago

Those are all previous and mediocre AMD architectures though. The Zen line is where things pop off.