Showing posts with label ARM Servers. Show all posts
Cavium and Western Digital set out to prove the value of a new cloud service provider (CSP) distributed storage platform that is price per performance competitive with current distributed storage platforms. Current storage platforms typically leverage high-priced Intel Xeon processors with legacy hard disk drives (HDDs). This paper describes the first performance assessment of a Ceph distributed block storage system using solely flash-based SSD coupled with modern 64-bit ARM processors. No rotating drives were used in the systems under test. (Know More)Cavium to Showcase ARMv8 Processor Solutions to Accelerate Next Generation Infrastructure at ARM TechCon 2016
Cloud scale deployment on ThunderX® with OpenStack, Secure IoT platform on OCTEON TX™ and MontaVista's CGX 2.0
SAN JOSE, CA – Oct. 26,
2016 – Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of semiconductor
products that enable intelligent processing for enterprise, data center, cloud,
wired and wireless networking, will exhibit ThunderX and OCTEON TX ARM-based
solutions for next-generation Infrastructure deployments in booth# 603 at ARM
TechCon 2016 from October 26-27 in Santa Clara, California.
Cavium's ThunderX ARMv8 based
workload optimized processor integrates key capabilities that are critical for
the most demanding Public and Private Cloud workloads. The OpenStack cloud
infrastructure enables end users to fully utilize ThunderX's features for
critical cloud workloads. These workloads include CEPH for cloud storage,
Apache Hadoop for Big Data Analytics, MySQL and Cassandra for distributed
databases, and NGNIX for secure web servers. ThunderX is also optimized for
networking specific workloads such as Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)
and Load-Balancing for Telco applications.
Cavium's OCTEON TX is
a complete line of 64-bit ARM-based SoCs for control plane and data plane
applications in networking, security, and storage. The OCTEON TX expands the
addressability of Cavium's embedded products into control plane application
areas within enterprise, service provider, data center networking and storage
that need support of extensive software ecosystem and virtualization features.
This product line is also optimized to run multiple concurrent data and control
planes simultaneously for security and router appliances, NFV and SDN
infrastructure, service provider CPE, wireless transport, NAS, storage controllers,
IOT gateways, printer and industrial applications.
Cavium will present its
ThunderX and OCTEON TX products, along with its partner MontaVista's CGX 2.0,
in booth #603:
- Live demonstration of Openstack solution (Autopilot, JuJu Charms, MAAS) on ThunderX SoC.
- Live demonstration of Secure IoT Gateway solution based on OCTEON TX CN81xx 4-core SoC and MontaVista CGX 2.0.
- Showcase its latest OCTEON TX CN83xx, 24-core SoC for Service Centric Networks.
####
About Cavium
Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), offers a broad portfolio of integrated, software compatible processors ranging in performance from 1Gbps to 100Gbp that enable secure, intelligent functionality in Enterprise, Data Center, Broadband/Consumer, Mobile and Service Provider Equipment, highly programmable switches which scale to 3.2Tbps and Ethernet and Fibre Channel adapters up to 100Gbps. Cavium processors are supported by ecosystem partners that provide operating systems, tools and application support, hardware reference designs and other products. Cavium is headquartered in San Jose, CA with design centers in California, Massachusetts, India, China and Taiwan. For more information, please visit : http://www.cavium.com.
Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), offers a broad portfolio of integrated, software compatible processors ranging in performance from 1Gbps to 100Gbp that enable secure, intelligent functionality in Enterprise, Data Center, Broadband/Consumer, Mobile and Service Provider Equipment, highly programmable switches which scale to 3.2Tbps and Ethernet and Fibre Channel adapters up to 100Gbps. Cavium processors are supported by ecosystem partners that provide operating systems, tools and application support, hardware reference designs and other products. Cavium is headquartered in San Jose, CA with design centers in California, Massachusetts, India, China and Taiwan. For more information, please visit : http://www.cavium.com.
Media Contact
Angel Atondo
Sr. Marketing Communications Manager
Telephone: +1 408-943-7417
Email: angel.atondo@cavium.com
Angel Atondo
Sr. Marketing Communications Manager
Telephone: +1 408-943-7417
Email: angel.atondo@cavium.com
It looks like Intel (NSDQ:INTC) has finally realized the potential of ARM
(NSDQ:ARMH) business prospects. The chipzilla entered into a licensing
agreement with ARM last week, which allows it to manufacture ARM-based mobile
SoCs for fabless chipmakers such as Qualcomm, Apple and Nvidia. The move would
combine Intel’s industry-leading chip fabrication processes with ARM’s highly
efficient mobile designs, and the joint synergies could potentially shake up
the entire semiconductor industry. Let’s take a closer look to have a better
understanding of it all.
- Intel recently struck a licensing agreement with ARM to manufacture its chips.
- The Move could boost Intel's revenues significantly.
- It could also bring upon a cash crunch on Intel's competitors, that could ultimately slow down their rate of progression.
Welcoming
ARM, with arms wide open
Let
me start by saying that Intel has had the world’s most advanced chip
fabrication technologies for several years now. It’s manufacturing lead was as
long as 18 months, back in 2014 and the chipzilla is expected to still stay
ahead of its peers (Taiwan Semiconductor, GlobalFoundries and Samsung) at least
up till 2018. Intel’s competitors were thriving till date due to increasing
business from ARM, but now that Intel has entered the scene with similar
intentions, the bulk of this business would pretty much go to the chipzilla due
to its manufacturing lead. After all, in the cut throat semiconductor industry,
everyone would want their performance chips to be manufactured on the latest
nodes.
2015 Rank
|
2014 Rank
|
Vendor
|
2015 Revenue
|
2015 Market Share (%)
|
2014 Revenue
|
2015-2014 Growth (%)
|
1
|
1
|
TSMC1
|
26,566
|
54.3
|
25,175
|
5.5
|
2
|
3
|
Globalfoundries2
|
4,673
|
9.6
|
4,400
|
6.2
|
3
|
2
|
UMC3
|
4,561
|
9.3
|
4,621
|
-1.3
|
4
|
4
|
Samsung Electronics4
|
2,607
|
5.3
|
2,412
|
8.1
|
5
|
5
|
SMIC
|
2,229
|
4.6
|
1,970
|
13.1
|
6
|
6
|
Powerchip Technology5
|
985
|
2
|
917
|
7.4
|
7
|
7
|
TowerJazz
|
961
|
2
|
828
|
16.1
|
8
|
10
|
Fujitsu Semiconductor
|
845
|
1.7
|
653
|
29.4
|
9
|
8
|
Vanguard International
|
736
|
1.5
|
790
|
-6.9
|
10
|
9
|
Shanghai Huahong Grace Semiconductor
|
651
|
1.3
|
665
|
-2
|
Top 10 for 2015
|
44,814
|
91.7
|
42,431
|
5.6
|
||
Others
|
4,077
|
8.3
|
4,281
|
-7
|
||
Total Market
|
48,891
|
100
|
46,812
|
4.4
|
·
- The global semiconductor foundry
business is estimated to be around $48.8 billion in
size. If Intel manages to slice up even 10% of this market, which shouldn’t be
that hard since it currently has the world’s most-advanced chip fabrication
technologies, its incremental revenues could be to the tune of $4.8 billion.
That’s a significant bump in its top-line, representing an increase of about
8.7% over its FY15 revenue. So its needless to say that Intel would be
opening a big revenue stream with this move. Intel can later use this
additional cash flow to fund its race to global 5G domination.
· -
More to the point, the semiconductor
industry requires billions of spending each year, earmarked towards improving
manufacturing technologies. If Intel manages to take away a sizable market
share from Taiwan Semiconductor and GlobalFoundries, then the their constrained
cash flows could hamper their R&D and capex spending, and ultimately result
in their growth slowdown. So the move to manufacture ARM chips not only serves
as an incremental revenue driver for Intel, but also limits the growth of its
foundry competitors. Talk about taking down two targets with one blow.
·
- Also, once Intel starts manufacturing
ARM-based chips, its factory utilization rate and production volumes would
increase. This should allow the chipmaker to attain better economies of scale,
improve its manufacturing efficiency and at the end of the day, it would become
easier for Intel to keep its fabs busy with the onset of this deal. Its foundry
operations for ARM-based chipmakers would act as a hedge against the slowing
down PC sales. These benefits should translate into better gross margins.
·
- And lastly, the move allows Intel to
capitalize on the mobile opportunity, while it still can. The chipzilla won’t
have to design its own Atom chips for mobile devices anymore in order to tap
the smartphone/tablet segment. So Intel would now be able to cater to the
mobile market, without having to invest billions in contra revenue or
mobile-related R&D spending. I believe that this is a low-risk, high-reward
opportunity for Intel and its shareholders.
Tempering excitement
Just like any other business move,
this one brings its own set of challenges and limitations as well.
· -
First of all, Intel won’t be a
chipmaker like Qualcomm, Apple or Nvidia. It will just be a foundry catering to
other fabless firms. This pretty much means that Intel’s revenue would be
limited to its production volume, regardless of how profitable or popular those
chips become. So its revenue stream could end up being as volatile and seasonal
as Micron’s.
·
- Secondly, if Intel continues in this
direction, it might also end up opening its foundry business to ARM-based
server chipmakers such as Cavium, AMD and Qualcomm. This may prove to be a
death knell for Intel’s highly profitable x86 server business. It could fuel
the growth of ARM servers and there’s a solid chance that they’d end up
cannibalizing Intel’s Xeon sales. So Intel must not head in this direction.
·
- More to the point, Intel’s excess
fabs aren’t running 10nm processes. Manufacturing 10nm chips on large scale
volume by 2018 would require a lot of retooling on Intel’s part. This would
most certainly bump up chipzilla’s capital expenditures over the next few
years, without providing any sort of guarantee that fabless chipmakers would
pick Intel for their manufacturing needs.
Putting it all together
Intel finally realized that other
foundries are its competitors as well. If the chipzilla succeeds in taking
business away from them, it would bring upon a cash crunch and ultimately slow
down the rate of progress of competition. So the move not only stands to boost
Intel’s revenues, but can also potentially impede the growth of its
competition. I see this as an excellent business move forward for Intel and its
shareholders.
