Arm server chip upstart Ampere Computing made a big splash with its 80-core “Quicksilver” Altra processor two weeks ago, and Marvell, which is the volume leader in Arm server chips with its “Vulcan” ThunderX2 processors (largely inherited from its acquisition of Broadcom’s Arm server chip assets), is hitting back with some revelations about its future “Triton” ThunderX3 chip and its roadmap out beyond that.
Competition in the ARM server space is really heating up.
Also see this sister article!
https://www.nextplatform.com/2020/03/18/stacking-up-arm-server-chips-against-x86/
This is awesome. I’ve wanted to have ARM systems like this for a long time. Functionally the ARM distros are already as capable as the x86 distros. I’ve only run on cheap ARM SBCs though. They show promise, but they were never really targeting the enterprise market and it shows. I don’t know how expensive this product line is going to be, but I’d really like to see a $1-2k ARM server go head to head with a similarly classed x86 server.
The one major roadblock I hope will be explicitly addressed is that many ARM boards have an over reliance on non-standard kernel builds. As much as I’d like to get a server grade ARM system, I keep getting bitten by kernels that cannot be upgraded in the ARM realm. I’ve never faced this issue with an x86 machine, not even once. So, as much as I’d like to support alternatives, I’m not going to do it by compromising my ability to upgrade or modify the software on my own terms.
I agree, it’s an excellent turn of events. I’ve been watching the “not X86” server market forever, and although there have been plenty of promising systems (remember those ATX-format Alpha systems that turned out to be unbuyable) and all of the MIPS, SPARC, Power systems that could pull the weight, but were priced out of the game. This time, perhaps? At least Amazon is pricing their Graviton2 systems lower than the x86 alternatives, even if they’re not available for sale. https://www.anandtech.com/show/15578/cloud-clash-amazon-graviton2-arm-against-intel-and-amd
My understanding about non-standard kernels is that RedHat insisted that in server-space, unlike mobile, the only option would be PC-style UEFI and BIOS booting, exactly because they wanted to be able to make standard distributions that would run on everything. I haven’t seen such a system yet: all of the little boards use mobile chips and are very “special”, but it could happen.
>> I haven’t seen such a system yet: all of the little boards use mobile chips and are very “special”, but it could happen.
All modern “Big” ARMs are implementing SBSA/SBBR standards.
Softiron makes ARM UEFI server dev kits based on AMD’s Opteron A series. I have one of the mITX ones as a home server and it’s pretty neat.