14 DAY TRIAL // According to surveys and market studies, many people around the world would like to see ARM-based processors in PCs and servers. If a certain plan pans out, this may happen next year. If not, there is always 2014.
Calxeda has decided on a development roadmap for its server platforms. Those $55 million (42 million Euro) it scored earlier this month (October 2012) will be put to use immediately, albeit not in the way some may hope.
What we mean to say is that there won't be an immediate influx of chips with support for all the technologies required today.
2013 will only see the arrival of the “Midway” platform, which for Calxeda is the second generation of system-on-chip devices.
The Cortex-A15 cores will act as the heart of the platform, and though Midway will offer good performance, higher memory support and hardware virtualization, it won't have 64-bit compatibility.
That all will change in 2014, when the third-generation series codenamed “Lago” debuts. Aimed at data centers, it will add Calxeda's scaling features (Calxeda Fleet Services) to the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture.
Furthermore, an enhanced fabric will link together thousands of nodes, while the CoreLink CCN-504 dynamic memory controller, or something derived from it, will set the bandwidth to one Terabit or more. It all boils down to how much all the technologies and products evolve over the next two years.
Some analysts and companies believe that ARM-based servers could cause waves in certain markets even before they move from 32-bit to 64-bit. The ultra-low power architecture of SoCs like, say, Calxeda EnergyCore ECX-1000, is the key.
Regardless, Calxeda, like HP for that matter, thinks that the dynamics on the data center market will only change in 2014 at the earliest.
“We expect to lead the industry with new concepts that will change the datacenter in ways far beyond just lowering power and increasing density,” said Barry Evans, Calxeda’s founder and CEO.
“Lago will be in the first wave of 64-bit complete systems and application stacks on ARM in 2014, and we are collaborating with key partners to ensure that customers can ramp quickly with production-quality software and OS support for both Midway and Lago.”