
Investigating Cavium's ThunderX: ARM Server SoC - dbcooper
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10353/investigating-cavium-thunderx-48-arm-cores
======
mntmn
Funny, just today I google on ThunderX boards and tried to track down the
latest AMD Opteron A1100 developments. I wish there were simple, stripped down
development boards for these kind of processors available. I would certainly
enjoy building a personal computer from them. Sadly, there seems to be no
viable competition today in terms of performance to x86/Core i7.

If you wanted to design a simple computer PCB with a RISC CPU in the GHz range
(or 500 Mhz+), what would you choose?

~~~
dman
[http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php](http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php)

~~~
subway
The ODROID-C2 is a neat device, but not at all comparable with an A1100. The
A1100 has 8 A57 cores, while the ODROID only has 4 A53s. Mainline kernel
support for the A1100 (and HuskyBoard, etc) has been relatively solid for a
while now, while the C-2's SoC only made it into 4.6, and we're seeing the
beginnings of a device tree in 4.7.

edit: Some A1100s only have 4 cores. They're still 4 beefier cores than the
S905.

~~~
rjsw
You can buy an ODROID-C2 today, which A1100 systems are available ?

~~~
ptomato
none, as far as I know. First likely to become available is probably going to
be
[http://www.lenovator.com/product/103.html](http://www.lenovator.com/product/103.html)
\- they're claiming Q2 2016.

------
tkinom
Love to see the power consumption number when all 48 cores are running at 100%
at max freq.

Also, It takes hours to build ASOP android opensource project in typical x86
build server utilize all the 4/8 cores.

If 48 cores can be configure to build ASOP somehow, I love to see that number
to see if there are "real" advantage to "48 cores" in that particular use
cases.

------
aroch
Correct me if I'm wrong, but these seem to be TDP/speed/heat limited because
they're based on a modified, older 28nm process design?

Process shrink requires a lot of resources and R&D spending, but surely they
could have benefited from not using 2008 ARM cores in 2016?

~~~
tcoppi
They seem to have plans to move to a modern GlobalFoundries 14nm process, so
it might be more competitive when that happens. The decision to use an older,
in-order core is probably based on the fact that their cache and memory
controller design is pretty bad, and unable to even feed the slower cores as
it is, so faster cores would be a waste. It turns out it is really hard to
shove a lot of highly performant cores in a single package, it is much easier
to shove a lot of crappy ones.

~~~
mtgx
I'm curious how AppliedMicro's X-Gene 3 will fare. It should be out later this
year on 14nm.

~~~
tcoppi
It will be interesting to see how that one goes, indeed. I think their timing
could be unfortunate, however, given AMD is about to reenter the server market
in a big way in the same timeframe.

~~~
smellf
How so?

