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March 31, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 42 Comments

This is what HoneyComb LX2K 16-core Arm Workstation Looks Like (Video)

Back in February 2019, while referring to Arm server, Linus Torvalds famously said: I can pretty much guarantee that as long as everybody does cross-development, the platform won’t be all that stable. Or successful. … If you develop on x86, then you’re going to want to deploy on x86, because you’ll be able to run what you test “at home” (and by “at home” I don’t mean literally in your home, but in your work environment). … Which in turn means that cloud providers will end up making more money from their x86 side, which means that they’ll prioritize it, and any ARM offerings will be secondary and probably relegated to the mindless dregs (maybe front-end, maybe just static html, that kind of stuff). SolidRun had already worked on products with NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex A72 processor and found out it could be a match to make a powerful […]

March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Ampere Altra Announces 80-Core Arm Neoverse N1 Server Processor & Reference Designs

The first 64-bit Arm server processor was announced almost 9 years ago. Applied Micro X-Gene was found in several servers, and the company updated X-Gene family until it got bought by Ampere in 2018. The latter has now announced the first of their own design with Ampere Altra, an 80-core Arm Neoverse N1 server processor made for data centers. Ampere Altra specifications: Processor Subsystem 80x Arm v8.2+ 64-bit CPU cores up to 3.0 GHz with Sustained Turbo 64 KB L1 I-cache, 64 KB L1 D-cache per core, 1 MB L2 cache per core, 32 MB System Level Cache (SLC) 2x full-width (128b) SIMD Coherent mesh-based interconnect, distributed snoop filtering System memory 8x 72-bit DDR4-3200 channels ECC, Symbol-based ECC, and DDR4 RAS features Up to 16 DIMMs and 4 TB/socket System Resources Full interrupt virtualization (GICv3) Full I/O virtualization (SMMUv3) Enterprise server-class RAS Connectivity 128 lanes of PCIe Gen4 8 x8 […]

June 5, 2019March 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 59 Comments

Pre-production HoneyComb LX2K 16-Core Mini ITX Arm Workstation is up for pre-order for $550

A few months ago, we wrote that SolidRun was working on ClearFog ITX workstation with an NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex-A72 processor, support for up to 64GB RAM, and a motherboard following the mini-ITX form factor that would make it an ideal platform as an Arm developer platform. Since then the company split the project into two parts: the ClearFog CX LX2K mini-ITX board will focus on networking application, while HoneyComb LX2K has had some of the networking stripped to keep the cost in check for developers planning to use the mini-ITX board as an Arm workstation. Both boards use the exact same LX2160A COM Express module. HoneyComb LX2K specifications: COM Module – CEx7 LX2160A COM Express module with NXP LX2160A 16-core Arm Cortex A72 processor @ 2.2 GHz (2.0 GHz for pre-production developer board) System Memory – Up to 64GB DDR4 dual-channel memory up to 3200 Mpts via SO-DIMM […]

October 17, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Arm ServerReady is a Compliance Program for Arm-based Servers

The Server Base System Architecture (SBSA) specification was unveiled in 2014 in order to standardize all Arm based servers and let them all run the same operating system images. However so far, manufacturers would just test specification requirements by themselves without having their claims fully tested and certificated. That’s why Arm has just unveiled the Arm ServerReady certification program for Arm based servers which relies on the Architecture Compliance Suite (ACS) for SBSA and SBBR (Server Base Boot Requirements) verification. Basically the servers must be able to boot standard operating systems and run the ACS. The servers that pass the ACS are then granted the Arm ServerReady certificate. The current Arm ServerReady version 1.0 certification utilizes ACS version 1.6 for testing SBSA version 3.1 and SBBR version 1.0 compliance. Ampere, HXT, Marvell, Qualcomm, as well as ODMs such as Femrice, Gigabyte and UIT have already received Arm ServerReady version 1.0 […]

December 14, 2016December 14, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Avantek H270-T70 384-core ARM Server Powered by Cavium ThunderX SoCs Can Be Bought Online

ARM servers have been around for a while, but usually it’s pretty hard to buy for individuals, and developer’s boards such as LeMaker Cello are never in stock, probably because the project has been canceled or suffered from further delays. However, if you have some uses for ARM servers and the cash that goes with it, Avantek Computer (UK) is selling some ARM based servers starting from an 1U Rack with a quad core Annapurna Alpine AL5140 processor up to Avantek H270-T70 with a 2U rack equipped with multiple Cavium ThunderX SoCs providing 384 ARMv8 cores to play with. Avantek H270-T70 server key features and specifications: SoCs – 8x Cavium ThunderX CN8890 processors with 48 custom ARMv8 cores each System Memory – 64x DDR4 ECC slots for up to 8TB memory Storage – 16x 2.5” hot-swappable HDD/SSD bays Connectivity – 8x 40GbE QSFP+ fiber ports (Cortina CS4343 controllers) Power Supply – […]

October 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

SolidRun MACCHIATOBin is Another Marvell ARMADA 8040 Networking Mini-ITX Board

We’ve already seen SolidRun is working on a Marvell ARMADA 8040 quad core Cortex A72 community board for networking and storage applications, but based on a picture taken at Linaro Connect, the company is also working on a similar board with extra connectivity options called MACCHIATOBin. Apart from the picture, there’s no info on the web about this board, so we’ll have to derive specs from the photo, the community board features, and info provided by Marcin Juszkiewicz, so all details are preliminary and subject to change: SoC – ARMADA 8040 (88F8040) quad core Cortex A72 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz System Memory – 1x DDR4 DIMM up to 16GB RAM Storage – 3x SATA 3.0 port + micro SD slot Connectivity – 1x Gigabit RJ45 port, 1x SFP SGMII @ 2.5Gbps, 2x 10Gbps copper (RJ45) with auto switchover to dual SFP+ Expansion – 1x PCIe-x4 3.0 slot, Marvell […]

October 31, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 14.10 Release with Kernel 3.17 and Android 4.4.4, Debian ARM64 Port Almost Complete

Linaro 14.10 has just been released with Linux kernel 3.17 (baseline), Linux 3.10.54 & 3.14.19 (LSK, same versions as last month), and Android 4.4.2 & 4.4.4. Most of the work is a continuation of previous months working member hardware, and ARM64, but one particularly interesting point is that 90% of Debian packages have been built for ARM64, and the next version of Debian should have an official ARM64 port. Here are the highlights of this release: Linux Linaro 3.17-2014.10 updated linaro-android topic. In particular, CONFIG_IPV6=y is no longer the requirement for linux-linaro tree builds GATOR version 5.19 (same version as in 2014.08 release). gatord is fixed to build for ARMv8. dropped multi_pmu_v2 topic by ARM LT (no longer used) updated topic from Qualcomm LT (include IFC6410 board support) replaced integration-linaro-vexpress topic by integration-linaro-vexpress64. Starting from 2014.10 release, linux-linaro kernel tree will use the mainline support for 32-bit vexpress boards. integration-linaro-vexpress64 […]

January 31, 2014October 17, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

ARM Unveils Server Base System Architecture Specification (SBSA) to Standardize ARM based Servers

64-bit ARM based servers should hit the market later this year or earlier in 2015 with SoCs such as Applied Micro X-Gene or AMD Opteron A1100. ARM still has the lead in terms of efficiency with a lower dollar per watt ratio, but Intel is closing in with their new Avoton server-on-chips. However, there’s one aspect where Intel is clearly in the lead: standardization and compatibility. ARM is very flexible, and allow SoC designers to create more or less what they want, but it comes at the cost that most ARM based systems are not capable of running mainline Linux, and instead use vendor trees. With many applications, that may not be critical, but when it comes to data-centers, companies want to be able to run the latest Linux version with the latest security patches as soon as possible, and want to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO), so […]