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> AADP is a prototyping system targeting general embedded applications based on the COM-HPC Ampere Altra module and a reference carrier board, the COM-HPC Serve

> AADP is a prototyping system targeting general embedded applications based on the COM-HPC Ampere Altra module and a reference carrier board, the COM-HPC Server Base. They do use the term embedded on that site which I thought was strange. Ampere is an ARM server startup. Their big customer so far is Oracle who sells Ampere cloud instances. https://www.oracle.com/cloud/compute/arm/ https://www.oracle.com/cloud/compute/arm/ I've worked at multiple companies with ARM architectural licenses including ARM itself. No one there cares about making a non embedded, non server, chip in a system at a price equivalent to a desktop or laptop x86 system that you can buy from Newegg / Best Buy. You may think it is cool but no one is going to make it for you. The trend for ARM is to continue down the embedded way and at the hyperscale data center area like Amazon Graviton and their competitors with their own custom ARM server chips. Since they are custom you won't be able to buy one to put in your house, only rent it in their cloud. Ampere is a startup so their goal is to get bought by a big company. I don't know how much longer you will even be able to buy that system. What is the actual price and performance point that you would pay as in the exact amount of dollars? Go talk to the marketing departments of these companies. They have already looked at this. They think the market is tiny and know the investment would be hundreds of millions and is not worth it. Why do you want an ARM system so bad? What is wrong with x86 for the non embedded / non server / middle desktop range? Literally billions of people are fine with x86 in this range.

mschuster91 3y ago
> Why do you want an ARM system so bad? I want more actually viable options in the ARM space for consumer general-purpose computing. Why? Because Windows laptop battery life sucks ass because both Intel and AMD can't be arsed to do what it takes to even get to half the runtime Apple gets out of their systems. I'm happy with my 2022 MBA, but Apple's pricing surcharge on memory and storage is only possible because there is no competition. At the moment, the only option consumers have is Apple, and that only runs macOS, but no Windows (and Linux, but with some serious drawbacks). People didn't buy Microsoft's first dabbles in ARM that used Qualcomm SoCs because the SoCs were underpowered garbage (no wonder, they were designed for phones) and there were no apps, app developers didn't develop for ARM because there were no actually usable development machines that didn't cost an arm and a leg/had ridiculous lead times, and there was no Rosetta equivalent because the CPUs were garbage and underpowered... a self-reinforcing circle.
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Volterra devices are quite affordable. Windows will always have this issue, because Microsoft isn't Apple, their hardware is only to inspire OEMs, they don't have the means to drag everyone screaming into new hardware no matter what. Windows NT supported several CPU architectures from day 1, they died as consumers couldn't care less that PowerPC, Alpha, Itanium... were supported.
- lizknope 3y ago
  Highly doubtful that you will see any in the near future. Qualcomm's previous custom ARM core team and server team got let go. Most went to Microsoft. Microsoft was trying to copy Apple and integrate hardware and software more tightly together. Microsoft laid off their custom ARM core team about 4 months ago. Most of them have gone to ARM. Anything Microsoft does in the future with ARM would be a licensed design from ARM. Qualcomm bought Nuvia a couple of years ago. Nuvia was a startup that had a custom ARM core design. Most people think Qualcomm will use the team for either the mobile or server markets again. This article does mention desktop but with ARM's lawsuits against them who knows when or if it would happen. https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/qualcomm-pushes-forward-with-arm-pc-chip-with-nuvia-cores-despite-arm-lawsuit/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/qualcomm-pushes-f... The other companies like Amazon will want to push you to their Graviton ARM cloud. Ampere wants to get bought. The people there that I know joined because it was a startup. They want to get rich more than they want to push some kind of ARM general purpose computing concept.

mschuster91 3y ago

> Why do you want an ARM system so bad? I want more actually viable options in the ARM space for consumer general-purpose computing. Why? Because Windows laptop battery life sucks ass because both Intel and AMD can't be arsed to do what it takes to even get to half the runtime Apple gets out of their systems. I'm happy with my 2022 MBA, but Apple's pricing surcharge on memory and storage is only possible because there is no competition. At the moment, the only option consumers have is Apple, and that only runs macOS, but no Windows (and Linux, but with some serious drawbacks). People didn't buy Microsoft's first dabbles in ARM that used Qualcomm SoCs because the SoCs were underpowered garbage (no wonder, they were designed for phones) and there were no apps, app developers didn't develop for ARM because there were no actually usable development machines that didn't cost an arm and a leg/had ridiculous lead times, and there was no Rosetta equivalent because the CPUs were garbage and underpowered... a self-reinforcing circle.

pjmlp 3y ago
Volterra devices are quite affordable. Windows will always have this issue, because Microsoft isn't Apple, their hardware is only to inspire OEMs, they don't have the means to drag everyone screaming into new hardware no matter what. Windows NT supported several CPU architectures from day 1, they died as consumers couldn't care less that PowerPC, Alpha, Itanium... were supported.
lizknope 3y ago
Highly doubtful that you will see any in the near future. Qualcomm's previous custom ARM core team and server team got let go. Most went to Microsoft. Microsoft was trying to copy Apple and integrate hardware and software more tightly together. Microsoft laid off their custom ARM core team about 4 months ago. Most of them have gone to ARM. Anything Microsoft does in the future with ARM would be a licensed design from ARM. Qualcomm bought Nuvia a couple of years ago. Nuvia was a startup that had a custom ARM core design. Most people think Qualcomm will use the team for either the mobile or server markets again. This article does mention desktop but with ARM's lawsuits against them who knows when or if it would happen. https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/qualcomm-pushes-forward-with-arm-pc-chip-with-nuvia-cores-despite-arm-lawsuit/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/qualcomm-pushes-f... The other companies like Amazon will want to push you to their Graviton ARM cloud. Ampere wants to get bought. The people there that I know joined because it was a startup. They want to get rich more than they want to push some kind of ARM general purpose computing concept.