ARM and AMD deliver reference platforms for ARM-based server ecosystem

ARM publishes reference specifications while AMD details its Opteron A1100 Series chips

ARM-based servers have taken another step forwards with the announcement of the Server Base System Architecture (SBSA) specifications from ARM itself, while partner AMD has disclosed more details of its first ARM-based server CPU and unveiled a development platform for it.

AMD announced that sampling of its first ARM-based server processor is "imminent". The 28nm chip, formerly codenamed Seattle, will now officially be known as the AMD Opteron A1100 Series when it ships to system builders.

The Opteron A1100 Series processors will be 64-bit chips with four or eight cores, each supporting dual DDR3 or DDR4 1866MHz memory channels with error correction code (ECC). As system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs, these will also support integrated input/output (I/O) including dual gigabit Ethernet ports, 8 PCI Express lanes and 8 Sata ports for storage.

Along with processor samples, AMD said it will deliver a development platform this quarter that will make it quicker and easier to design software to run on its ARM-based server platform, according to AMD.

The Opteron A-Series development kit is packaged in a Micro ATX form factor and comprises an A1100 Series processor with four Dimm slots for up to 128GB of DDR3 DRAM. This is supported by a broad set of tools and software including a standard UEFI boot and Linux environment based on the Fedora Project.

Suresh Gopalakrishnan, vice president of AMD's server business unit, said that ARM-based servers would better meet the changing needs of some data centre customers.

"The new ARM-based AMD Opteron A-Series processor brings the experience and technology portfolio of an established server processor vendor to the ARM ecosystem and provides the ideal complement to our established AMD Opteron x86 server processors," he said.

Meanwhile, ARM itself released the ARM Server Base System Architecture (SBSA) specifications for servers based on its ARMv8-A 64-bit technology, providing a framework for the deployment of ARM-based solutions in data centre applications, according to the firm.

The specifications were developed with input from ARM industry partners including Canonical, Citrix, Linaro, Microsoft, Red Hat and Suse on the software side, plus hardware vendors including Dell and HP.

The SBSA defines key hardware features that system software such as operating systems, hypervisors and firmware can rely on. The goal is to ensure a standard system architecture that will enable software to run on all hardware compliant with the specifications, ARM said.

ARM chief technology officer Michael Muller said: "As ARM's data centre ecosystem continues its rapid growth, this milestone enables partners to focus on their innovation while building on standards that help simplify their development and accelerate their time to market."