

AMD acquires SeaMicro - Ecio78
http://sites.amd.com/us/promo/stave/Pages/seamicro.aspx

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Ecio78
Some additional info here:
[http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/02/29/amd-t...](http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/02/29/amd-
to-acquire-server-innovator-seamicro/)

 _AMD will acquire low-power server specialist SeaMicro for $334 million_ _The
basic building block of the SeaMicro system is a credit card-sized compute
block, comprised of a CPU and its chipset, DRAM, and a custom SeaMicro ASIC
(application specific integrated circuit). SeaMicro’s patented I/O
virtualization allows companies to save money by using fewer cables and
network interface cards (NICs) to connect to networks and storage._

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Quequau
That reminds me, Calxeda was making noises a few months ago about competing in
that space using ARM cores. Cruising their site I don't see anything new so I
guess they weren't as far along with their development as they were saying.

~~~
Ecio78
AFAIK they were working together with HP on their labs:
[http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/02/hp-and-calxedas-
moonshot-...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/02/hp-and-calxedas-moonshot-arm-
servers-will-bring-all-the-boys-to/)

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wtracy
In case you're curious, this is the kind of thing that SeaMicro does:
[http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/07/18/seami...](http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/07/18/seamicro-
packs-768-cores-into-its-atom-server/)

Last I looked, the price of SeaMicro's servers ran in the low six-figures.
Very cool stuff, but not anything I'm likely to get my hands on soon.

~~~
Ecio78
According to their site, they're powering Mozilla's download cluster:
[http://www.seamicro.com/sites/default/files/MozillaCaseStudy...](http://www.seamicro.com/sites/default/files/MozillaCaseStudy.pdf)

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nextparadigms
If anything, this is a loss for Intel. SeaMicro was the company to push Atom
servers the most, and may have been even the only one. If they switch to AMD,
that means no other other is interested in making Atom-based servers right
now, which clears the path for ARM with their Cortex A15 chips later on.

~~~
Symmetry
Well, AMD has their own low power core, Bobcat, which I'd bet they're going to
be combining with Sea Micro's stuff. In fact, given AMD's move to synthesized
design for Bobcat I expect that they'll just take the GPU out of a Brazos
chip, put in the logic from SeaMicro's special connector chips, and boom
you've got a pretty compelling product.

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sciurus
Discussion from yesterday: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3649844>

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Quequau
With this I wonder if we will see Bobcat variants which do not have the GPU
cores but instead have more CPU cores.

