14 DAY TRIAL // Unlike Intel, Advanced Micro Devices isn't exclusively attached to the x86 architecture, and it is this that ultimately led to the company's ARM-based processor plans.
Although we can't exactly call them just plans any longer. They have come to fruition after all, or are close enough to it anyway.
You may have heard about the Opteron A1100 series SoC (system-on-chip). This is the AMD processor that uses ARM technology.
As an SoC, it integrates not just the CPU cores (four or 8 Cortex A57), but also up to 8 MB L3 cache memory + 4 MB L2 cache, a memory controller, 8 lanes of PCI-Express 3.0, two 10Gb Ethernet links and eight SATA 3 ports.
The ARM cores will work at up to 2 GHz and can handle up to 128 MB GB of DDR3 memory. A high Ram capacity is essential on servers after all.
Sadly, the AMD Opteron A1100 will only be launched in the fourth quarter of the year (2014). But at least they're sampling, which means that prospective server builders and clients can get one or two of them to experiment with.
The chips are built on the 28nm process (not that TSMC is giving AMD much choice there), will support 10 Gb Ethernet (as we have said before) and perform 2-4 times better than x86-based X-Series APUs.