How powerful is ARM's server chip?

There is no absolute moat in the processor world. The PC and server fields, which are considered to be the most stable rear of the X86 camp, are slowly being infiltrated by ARM cores. First, Apple announced that it would replace Intel processors with self-developed processor chips, then Fujitsu's 48-core SoC-driven Fugaku supercomputer won the top spot in the world's supercomputer 500, and finally Ampere launched the latest model of the Altra processor for cloud computing, the 128-core Ampere™ Altra Max. And this processor giant based on the 7nm process also pushed the performance of ARM server chips to the extreme.

Upgrading for cloud native

In March of this year, Ampere released the world's first cloud-native processor Altra, which meets the three major requirements of cloud-native processors: predictable high performance, high scalability, and high energy efficiency.

According to Jeff Wittich, senior vice president of Ampere products, the advantages of the Altra processor fully meet these three requirements. In terms of predictable high performance, Altra has up to 80 core computing cores, consistent Mesh interconnection, high memory bandwidth and high density. In terms of high scalability, in addition to dual-slot scalability, Altra also has flexible external expansion such as DDR4 and PCIe. In terms of high energy efficiency, Altra has the highest core density per chip.

Altra's Extended Performance Advantage

From the data, the Altra series processors show high scalability and stability of single-thread performance. "Its performance increases with the number of cores. When the number of cores increases to 160, it can achieve 98% of the ideal performance in theory." Jeff Wittich said that in contrast, the performance of competing products did not increase with the increase of threads.

This performance advantage will be clearly reflected in cloud services. When using Ampere Altra processors, as the number of cloud users continues to increase, the processor performance obtained by new users after their workflows are put on the cloud will not be attenuated. The Altra Max with 128 cores fully reflects this technical strength, allowing Ampere to maintain the advantage of the largest number of processor cores in the industry for a long time.

The newly launched Altra Max is socket-compatible with the original Altra, which means that customers' development platforms can be used for both products. In addition, Altra Max will also bring the highest socket-level performance and I/O scalability to the industry. However, Altra Max will not replace Altra. "For example, some applications place special emphasis on I/O and memory, and they will find Ampere Altra very suitable, while those workloads with very strong scalability will tend to choose Altra Max with a high core count." Jeff Wittich explained.

The Altra product line is already very complete, with 11 categories of products currently available. Cloud and ODM customers can choose based on application type and TDP preferences.

It should be emphasized that the lower TDP is a major advantage of Altra. "Compared with competing products, with the same 64 cores, our TDP can be less than 100W, which is a real game-changer." Jeff Wittich believes that as the TDP decreases, Altra's advantages will become more obvious. "In some application scenarios with very low power requirements, such as edge computing, we can provide 32 high-performance cores with a TDP of only 45 to 58W. No similar product can provide so many high-performance cores and such low power consumption at the same time like us."

Altra Series Performance (excluding Altra Max)

Altra Max samples will be released in the fourth quarter of 2020. In 2022, Ampere will also release a processor called Future, which uses a 5nm process. Currently, the product has completed the tape-out of the test chip.

Have more ecological partners

ARM server chips have always been criticized for not being able to keep up with the ecological construction. However, Ampere has made a lot of efforts to change the situation.

Packet, a cloud service provider, provides infrastructure and services for cloud developers and has been working with Ampere for many years. Recently, Packet has begun using Ampere Altra processors. CLOUDFLARE, a mainstream company in the web hosting service industry, highly appreciates the power consumption and performance of Ampere Altra processors and will officially release related products this year. At the same time, Scaleway, a cloud service provider from Europe, will also cooperate with Ampere at the end of this year.

NVIDIA recently announced a series of tools and CUDA libraries based on Arm processors. Ampere has been working with NVIDIA over the past few years to help them develop a software stack based on its graphics cards. Therefore, future AI, including image processing, will be able to run on Ampere Altra processors.

Jeff Wittich said: "In the next few months we will also announce a series of new system integrator partners, especially Chinese partners." According to reports, Ampere's partner Genymobile will provide related services to the market based on the Ampere Altra server series. Genymobile provides Android virtual facilities and services, which has a very broad development prospect in China.

Jeff Wittich is very confident about the future of ARM server chips. He believes that there are three reasons that will promote the development of ARM CPUs: First, the performance provided by ARM CPUs is particularly needed by large customers. Second, the ARM software ecosystem, including apps and operating systems, is also maturing. Third, the innovation of X86 is slowing down. In summary, the rapid progress of ARM processors is also an inevitable result of the continuous development of customer needs.