Showing posts with label arm platform. Show all posts
Microsoft said yesterday that it is paving the way for easier, faster Windows 10 computing on mobile devices with new support from Qualcomm's Snapdragon ARM processors. The partnership, announced at a Windows hardware engineering event in China, could lead to new mobile products running Windows 10 "as early as next year," according to Microsoft executive Terry Myerson.
The Windows 10-Snapdragon union could pose a threat to Intel's position as the market leader in PC chips, a number of observers have noted. At the same time, however, Microsoft yesterday also announced it was collaborating with Intel to bring new security and artificial-intelligence features to PCs, with a focus on gaming and mixed-reality applications.
The Windows 10-Snapdragon union could pose a threat to Intel's position as the market leader in PC chips, a number of observers have noted. At the same time, however, Microsoft yesterday also announced it was collaborating with Intel to bring new security and artificial-intelligence features to PCs, with a focus on gaming and mixed-reality applications.
Together,
developments like these could signal that significant shifts in the
microprocessor market are on the horizon. They could also enable a second
chance for Microsoft to bring the full Windows experience to mobile devices, an
effort the company failed to achieve with its previous Window RT mobile
operating system.
Targeting
Windows Users on the Go
In
a blog post about several announcements made yesterday in China, Myerson -- who
is executive vice president for Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group -- said
the new Snapdragon-powered collaboration with Qualcomm is aimed at meeting
"our customers' growing needs to create on the go."
"For
the first time ever, our customers will be able to experience the Windows they
know with all the apps, peripherals, and enterprise Relevant Products/Services
capabilities they require, on a truly mobile, power efficient, always-connected
cellular PC," Myerson said. "With Windows 10 on cellular PCs, we will
help everyone make the most of the air around them."
By
using Qualcomm's ARM chips instead of Intel's X86-based processors, Microsoft
hopes to enable a new generation of Windows 10-native mobile devices like
tablets and laptops. Traditionally limited to low-power applications, ARM chips
are becoming increasingly powerful and bring the added advantages of support
for longer battery life and cellular-based, always-on connectivity.
Second
Chance for Microsoft
Thanks
to "compatibility with the Windows 10 ecosystem, the Qualcomm Snapdragon
platform is expected to support mobility to cloud computing and redefine how
people will use their compute devices," Qualcomm executive vice president
Cristiano Amon said yesterday in a press announcement.
Myerson
noted that the partnership will enable Microsoft's hardware partners to
"build a range of new Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs that run
x86 Win32 and universal Windows apps, including Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft
Office and popular Windows games."
Microsoft
had previously targeted the mobile computing market with ARM-based devices
running Windows RT, which launched in late 2012. However, that OS failed to
gain traction among consumers, and production of Windows RT-based devices like
the Surface 2 and Lumia 2520 tablets came to an end in early 2015.
Meanwhile,
a new collaboration between Microsoft and Intel called Project Evo will aim to
"further push the boundaries of personal computing" with smarter
voice-machine communication, new virtual and mixed-reality applications, better
gaming and "true always-connected computing," according to an
editorial penned by Navin Shenoy, senior vice president and general manager of
Intel's Client Computing Group.
"The
work we are doing will help drive innovation in other areas too, from
hardware-enhanced single- and multi-factor authentication powered by Windows
Hello and Intel Authenticate for enhanced PC security to an even greater focus
on connectivity -- starting today with LTE," Shenoy wrote. "This
includes offering a wide range of PC form factors and price points that give
people choice in mobility, whether they are carrying an ultra-thin and light
notebook or a cool 2 in 1."
Packet’s not-so-secret weapon: energy-sipping bare-metal servers using ARM processors.
A
little-known startup is making a big bet that it can parlay new ARM chips, and
backing from a Japanese investment giant, to make its presence felt among the
cloud computing giants.
The
company, Packet, on Tuesday is launching new rentable “bare metal” computing
services based on the ARM v8 chip architecture from its data centers in New
Jersey, Northern California, Amsterdam, and Tokyo. Customers can set up and
launch these resources within minutes, Packet said
The
move is unusual because ARM chips are not commonly found in the servers that
power corporate data centers or public cloud computer services, such as those
sold by Amazon AMZN -1.47% Web Services. They do, however, dominate the
smartphone market—scratch an Apple AAPL
-1.87% iPhone (God forbid) and you’ll
see an ARM chip. And many techies see ARM’s energy-efficient design as an
interesting option for servers going forward.
Bare
metal servers, unlike typical cloud-based servers, are not virtualized. That
means they can run certain jobs, like databases, faster than virtualized cloud
servers. IBM IBM -2.15% , Rackspace RAX 0.00%
and some other cloud companies already offer bare metal options for
rent.
New
York-based Packet, which disclosed $9.4 million in funding from Softbank in
September, aims to satisfy what it sees as a growing market for bare-metal
computing on demand. Softbank is a great ally for Packet, since it is buying
ARM Holdings for $32 billion. ARM Holdings is the U.K. company that controls
and licenses ARM processor designs to manufacturers.
Packet
CEO Zachary Smith acknowledges that this is a David and Goliath tale in many
ways. Intel chips dominate cloud computing services and equipment, as they do
inside corporate data centers. And Amazon Web Services and Microsoft MSFT -0.71%
Azure are the behemoths in the public cloud market; both organizations
sell (or rent) massive amounts of computing power to customers from their
Intel-dominated data centers.
Smith
has no problem stipulating that Intel owns “99 point whatever percent” of the
data center chip architecture, with a smattering of IBM-backed Power chips and
Oracle ORCL -1.42% SPARC chips here and there. Likewise, he
admits that Intel INTC 0.23% x86 chips work with everything, that Intel
fields a huge partner ecosystem of software, hardware and add-on providers, and
that it also owns the biggest-and-best fabrication facilities.
But,
he also insists that big changes over the past year are shifting the balance of
power. “There are a billion smartphones out there with ARM chips,” Smith noted.
As a result, there many manufacturers and plenty of ARM licensees working with
the technology. What that means is ARM now has an ecosystem all its own, which
is something Softbank and Packet hope to capitalize on.
Taking
on established cloud giants like Amazon Web Services is a long shot but there
are some critical nuances to consider.
First,
the market for rentable computer resources is growing fast enough now to float
many boats, including newcomers, provided they have funding and innovative
services that corporate developers and their IT strategy overlords want.
Second,
even cloud giants admit that new chip technologies will be critical as cloud
computing matures. Energy-efficient ARM chips that already power an estimated
95% of smartphones are bound to get a look, especially if their use can reduce
data center power requirements. Microsoft and Google also talk up x86
alternative chips for some uses. And Amazon last year bought Annapurna Labs, an
ARM chip licensee. Clearly, there is interest here.
Smith
contended that the widespread use of ARM chips in other scenarios is also
making it easier for cloud service providers (and others) to get early previews
of the technology and to develop offerings using it.
Cavium and Leading Partners Showcase ThunderX® ARM-based Server Platforms, QLogic® FastLinQ Ethernet Adapters and Fibre Channel HBAs for High Performance Computing at SC16
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 15, 2016 --
Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of semiconductor
products that enable intelligent processing for enterprise, data center,
cloud, wired and wireless networking, today announced the showcasing of
ThunderX based workload optimized server platforms and the QLogic
FastLinQ Ethernet Adapters and Fibre Channel HBAs for High Performance
Computing, Data Analytics, Scale Out Storage and Hyperscale Data Centers
at SC16 in the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The show Expo dates are from Monday, November 14th to Thursday, November 17th.
ThunderX is Cavium's 64-bit ARMv8server processor family
for next generation high performance computing and hyperscale
workloads. With up to 48 high-performance custom cores, single and dual
socket capability, high memory bandwidth and capacity, and integrated
hardware accelerators, ThunderX enables best-in-class ARMv8 performance
per dollar and performance per watt. The ThunderX family includes
multiple SKUs that enable servers optimized for compute, storage,
network and security workloads in the cloud, and is widely supported by
industry-leading OS, hypervisor, software tool and application vendors.
ThunderX is also optimized for networking specific workloads such as
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
From
the heart of the data center, to the edge of the enterprise, and in the
cloud, QLogic® Fibre Channel and Ethernet adapters deliver an
uncompromising suite of features, performance and reliability with a
comprehensive suite of offerings that span 10GbE to 100GbE, and 8GFC to
32GFC (Gen6). QLogic Fibre Channel adapters are the gold standard in
SAN connectivity, trusted with running mission critical applications
across the world, and the QLogic FastLinQ Ethernet adapters are the most
flexible data networking solutions in the industry supporting FCoE,
iSCSI and RDMA transports. Together, these products make Cavium the
industry leader in high performance network connectivity solutions.
Show Highlights and Demonstrations
Cavium
executives will be available to discuss the broad range of ThunderX
based production platforms, which are ideal for critical workloads such
as highly parallel HPC applications, scale out storage with CEPH, Apache
Hadoop for Big Data Analytics, distributed data bases such as MySQL
& Cassandra, and Web Serving with NGINX. In addition to the ThunderX
based ODM and OEM platforms, Cavium's QLogic® FastLinQ Ethernet
Adapters and Fibre Channel HBAs will be on display at Cavium's booth
#4057 including:
- QLogic FastLinQ 10/25/40/50/100 Gb Ethernet Adapters
- QLogic Enhanced Gen5 and Gen6 Fibre Channel Adapter
- ThunderX System Partners including: Aewyn, E4, Gigabyte and Lenovo
Cavium
representatives will also be presenting more details on ThunderX at a
number of partner sponsored events during the week. These events
include the ARM HPC User Group as well as presentations at the Red Hat
and SUSE booths during the week at the Convention Center.
To schedule a meeting at SC16, please send an email to sales@cavium.com and enter SC16 Meeting Request in the subject line.
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, 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, Israel, China and Taiwan.
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, 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, Israel, China and Taiwan.
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
