Frankfurt am Main · 15 – 19 June 2015
➤evolved considerably over the last couple of years and we have a broad spectrum of solutions from very small, very efficient cores all the way up to multi-issue, fully out of order superscalar architectures, all built around the same compatible instruction set. So there you have that spectrum of solutions.’ He went on to explain that a lot
of what makes these processors an attractive option to the mobile and embedded computing industries are now also very attractive to the server market and HPC industry. Underhill said: ‘Tey are looking to build higher performance machines, improve efficiency, and improve the cost of ownership. And a lot of those same variables that have made the ARM architecture attractive for portable and mobile devices are now very attractive and compelling for server and HPC communities.’ Underhill concluded: ‘So we’ve even seen some people explore the
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use of what you would consider mobile technologies for deploying them to HPC and exploring the bounds of what might be possible – leveraging technologies from a totally different domain that you may not immediately categorise as a HPC technology right now.’ One thing that has benefitted ARM, in the eyes of Jeff Underhill, is that the licensing model of the ARM architecture fosters collaboration as ARM is most successful when its silicon partners are also successful. Tis leads to a more open ecosystem, which has been a clear driver of ARM technology within the HPC industry. ‘It’s really a result of keen
interest from the HPC space in the ARM architecture, the progression that we’ve made, those lower power efficiency characteristics, and then fundamentally the ARM business model – allowing them to
use as much or as little of the ARM IP and augment that with their own intellectual property whether that be networking, accelerators, GPGPUs, bulk encryption, bulk compression engines, storage accelerators.’ It is just this collaboration
and freedom to adapt the ARM microarchitecture within the boundaries of the ARM instruction set that have attracted a number of partners who wish to develop ARM solutions. As a consequence of the work done by ARM, many of these companies have roots outside of conventional computing technologies. Tey bring new IP to the table, such as networking features that deliver the data throughput that data intensive applications of today require. Applied Micro, for instance, has
its roots in the telecoms industry as Major explained. He said: ‘Te company has been around for thirty some years now. We went public in 1999. Our legacy and roots are in building high- speed, high-quality transport components for the telecoms industry and what’s happened over the years is telecoms has sort of morphed into datacom which has been morphing into datacentre which has meant that our product line has been adapting accordingly.’ Sankaran said: ‘Te inherent
advantage that we have in the compute space is because of our legacy. From the legacy we have had all of these IPs that are mainly borrowed from the communications space, we reused that in the computing area.’ It is unlikely that any one of
these technologies will be able to dominate the HPC industry over the next few years. Te market is generally uncertain about the future and braced for change. No one wants to be the first to stick their neck out or open their wallet in an uncertain time, but those who choose to adopt some of these technologies are helping to shape a future where energy efficiency and data intensive computing applications will be as important as floating-point performance. l
@scwmagazine l
www.scientific-computing.com
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