Applied Micro Shows 64-bit ARM Server Chip

Applied Micro said it will be sampling a server processor based on 64-bit ARM architecture in the second half of next year.

Called X-Gene, the processor was detailed for the first time at the recent Hot Chips conference. According to president and CEO Paramesh Gopi, the chip is targeting servers with 128, 256 and 512 processor cores, while the SoC itself will integrate eight or 16 cores.

So far, this is among the more promising ARM server chip proposals to date. There are several server models in development, most notably Dell's Copper server, which uses (32-bit) Marvell Armada quad-core CPUs. HP, however, has shied away from using (Calxeda's) ARM in its microserver environment initially, and chose to use Intel's upcoming Centerton processor - Intel's product for the microserver market -  in its Gemini platform instead.

AMD, which has acquired SeaMicro to compete in this market, has not formally announced its own processor for this segment yet, but is widely expected to at least reveal a partnership with ARM in this space.

There is clearly a vendor ecosystem evolving for the ARM server market, but it is unclear whether the architecture can provide the credibility in terms of performance, reliability and TCO customers in this market expect.

Wolfgang Gruener is a contributor to Tom's IT Pro. He is currently principal analyst at Ndicio Research, a market analysis firm that focuses on cloud computing and disruptive technologies, and maintains the conceivablytech.com blog. An 18-year veteran in IT journalism and market research, he previously published TG Daily and was managing editor of Tom's Hardware news, which he grew from a link collection in the early 2000s into one of the most comprehensive and trusted technology news sources.

See here for all of Wolfgang's Tom's IT Pro articles.