Apple. Just like they were first with ARMv8.2 and 8.3. The INTERESTING question is whether they will be first with SVE (optional part of ARMv8.2) (Yeah, yeah Fujitsu has ANNOUNCED SVE support. But when do they SHIP anything? Before October 2019?)
I want to see how much one of these servers costs. The 32 core eMag CPU is supposed to cost about $850, which is half what a ThreadRipper 2990WX costs ($1699.99). I know it's not intended as a workstation, but I wonder if it might be suitable as one anyway. If the price of the server is proportional to the price of the CPU, then this could be a very good deal.
(I do statistical regression analysis, which is basically a lot of matrix algebra. So it's highly parallelizable, and core count can matter more than IPC or clock speed.)
There is basically no relation between CPU cost and server cost. And generally it is cheaper to get an AMD or Intel server than any ARM server. While the list price difference for the CPU may favor the eMag, the actual motherboard/server cost is the same or higher if you can even find someone to sell you one. Even AMD has orders of magnitude higher volume than Ampere does in the server space and NRE has a massive factor in cost in this space.
You can get a 32 core eMAG CPU with motherboard for just £1800 [1]. You can't buy a 32 core Xeon CPU that cheap! Eg. Xeon Gold 6134 with only 8 cores goes for £1645 [2].
So you may need to reevaluate your misconceptions a bit.
That's a complete system price including case and power supply. And you need to compare with a dual Xeon to get a similar core count. The cheapest 2P Xeon boards go for around £400-500, then add the case and power supply. You simply have no point.
The core count is an irrelevant comparison if each core is doing 1/4 the work of the core you are trying to compare it to. In the server market the comparison used is typically performance/$ or performance/watt on the workload that the owner anticipates. The ThunderX2 has rotten performance in comparison to the x86 cores. It does excel at a few specific workloads (like an HTTP master server in a cluster where it's high thread count and low performance per thread is an advantage) but as a general server CPU you can't do a core-core comparison.
In the traditional server workloads the ARM server chips that have been brought to market have not done well and their limited deployments often keep costs well above the x86 competition making the numbers even worse.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a competative ARM server core, it would help drive costs down in the market for everyone but right now such a product just doesn't exist. The ARM server cores that have been brought to market have a few viable market segments but they are only good in very specific workloads. Until that changes and ARM or it's partners brings a server chip to market that can compete as a general server CPU ARM is a non-factor in the server market.
Whereas Wilco1 does have a fair point, you're using a fairly over priced component to backup your point! You can find 20-Core Gold CPUs for <£2,000 each, just need to use a better supplier! EG;
In that price range, the best Intel option would be a Xeon W. A 18-core Xeon W-2295 costs about £1025, leaving you more than enough for an appropriate motherboard. For most purposes, the Xeon would be faster, as well.
Its first ARM-based products were coprocessor modules for the 6502B based BBC Micro series of computers. Product is tested, working and packed in a brown box. Comes with 1 year RTB warranty. Here you can buy or read more: https://kahnservers.co.uk/product/dell-vtr4r-power...
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SydneyBlue120d - Monday, April 15, 2019 - link
Who will be the first one with a Armv8.5-A processor?name99 - Tuesday, April 16, 2019 - link
Apple. Just like they were first with ARMv8.2 and 8.3.The INTERESTING question is whether they will be first with SVE (optional part of ARMv8.2)
(Yeah, yeah Fujitsu has ANNOUNCED SVE support. But when do they SHIP anything? Before October 2019?)
Mikewind Dale - Monday, April 15, 2019 - link
I want to see how much one of these servers costs. The 32 core eMag CPU is supposed to cost about $850, which is half what a ThreadRipper 2990WX costs ($1699.99). I know it's not intended as a workstation, but I wonder if it might be suitable as one anyway. If the price of the server is proportional to the price of the CPU, then this could be a very good deal.(I do statistical regression analysis, which is basically a lot of matrix algebra. So it's highly parallelizable, and core count can matter more than IPC or clock speed.)
ats - Monday, April 15, 2019 - link
There is basically no relation between CPU cost and server cost. And generally it is cheaper to get an AMD or Intel server than any ARM server. While the list price difference for the CPU may favor the eMag, the actual motherboard/server cost is the same or higher if you can even find someone to sell you one. Even AMD has orders of magnitude higher volume than Ampere does in the server space and NRE has a massive factor in cost in this space.Wilco1 - Monday, April 15, 2019 - link
You can get a 32 core eMAG CPU with motherboard for just £1800 [1]. You can't buy a 32 core Xeon CPU that cheap! Eg. Xeon Gold 6134 with only 8 cores goes for £1645 [2].So you may need to reevaluate your misconceptions a bit.
[1] https://store.avantek.co.uk/ampere-emag-64bit-arm-...
[2] https://www.lamicro.co.uk/intel-xeon-gold-6134-cpu...
ats - Monday, April 15, 2019 - link
You are proving my point. $1k for a UP motherboard, wtf!Wilco1 - Monday, April 15, 2019 - link
That's a complete system price including case and power supply. And you need to compare with a dual Xeon to get a similar core count. The cheapest 2P Xeon boards go for around £400-500, then add the case and power supply. You simply have no point.rahvin - Tuesday, April 16, 2019 - link
The core count is an irrelevant comparison if each core is doing 1/4 the work of the core you are trying to compare it to. In the server market the comparison used is typically performance/$ or performance/watt on the workload that the owner anticipates. The ThunderX2 has rotten performance in comparison to the x86 cores. It does excel at a few specific workloads (like an HTTP master server in a cluster where it's high thread count and low performance per thread is an advantage) but as a general server CPU you can't do a core-core comparison.In the traditional server workloads the ARM server chips that have been brought to market have not done well and their limited deployments often keep costs well above the x86 competition making the numbers even worse.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a competative ARM server core, it would help drive costs down in the market for everyone but right now such a product just doesn't exist. The ARM server cores that have been brought to market have a few viable market segments but they are only good in very specific workloads. Until that changes and ARM or it's partners brings a server chip to market that can compete as a general server CPU ARM is a non-factor in the server market.
Jackm-tech - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
Whereas Wilco1 does have a fair point, you're using a fairly over priced component to backup your point! You can find 20-Core Gold CPUs for <£2,000 each, just need to use a better supplier! EG;https://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/sr3b6-intel-xeon...
You will find that these CPUs will start coming down when they hit the 3 y/o mark due to system recycling cycles.
mode_13h - Tuesday, December 24, 2019 - link
Shopping used might make sense for an individual with lower reliability or efficiency requirements, but it's not very informative in this context.BTW, there are reasons why data centers don't want that hardware, any more.
mode_13h - Tuesday, December 24, 2019 - link
In that price range, the best Intel option would be a Xeon W. A 18-core Xeon W-2295 costs about £1025, leaving you more than enough for an appropriate motherboard. For most purposes, the Xeon would be faster, as well.KahnServers - Friday, March 6, 2020 - link
Its first ARM-based products were coprocessor modules for the 6502B based BBC Micro series of computers. Product is tested, working and packed in a brown box. Comes with 1 year RTB warranty.Here you can buy or read more:
https://kahnservers.co.uk/product/dell-vtr4r-power...