Home » Articles posted by Nacsa Sándor (Page 14)
Author Archives: Nacsa Sándor
Nokia should introduce an Android forked smartphone for the $75-120 range in order to enhance its Asha Software Platform strategy
In order to increase its presence in the sub $120 market (see Lumia 520 for Rs. 8850, i.e. US$ 144 in India, and US$121.5 in China) it is obvious that Nokia should take the next step in its Asha Software Platform Strategy with its recent stance being the following one:
More information: Q3’13 smartphone and overall mobile phone markets: Android smartphones surpassed 80% of the market, with Samsung increasing its share to 32.1% against Apple’s 12.1% only; while Nokia achieved a strong niche market position both in “proper” (Lumia) and “de facto” (Asha Touch) smartphones [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Nov 14, 2013]
That is a definite gap exists in Nokia offerings between US$75 and US$120. Also this gap could only be filled with an Android forked offering only. Therefore we should (first time during the whole existence of this trend-tracking blog) take seriously the ongoing rumors about such an offering, the so called Nokia Normandy project., despite all uncertainties of not only the Microsoft takeover of the Nokia device business, but also the uncertainties about the next CEO of Microsoft and the company strategy in smartphones which will come as the result of that selection.
I should include here the latest summary about that from Wikipedia as it “is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia’s deletion policy”:
Nokia Normandy [Wikipedia excerpt, Jan 17, 2014]
The Normandy, previously known as ‘Project N’, the ‘Asha on Linux project’ and “MView”, is a low-end Android device under development by Nokia.
Described as a potential “game changer”,[1] the project has garnered substantial interest from the media, including coverage from New York Times,[2] Engadget,[3]Stuff,[4] Forbes,[5] Gizmodo,[6] The Verge,[7] CNET[8] and The Times of India.[9]
Manufacturer: Nokia
- Series: unknown; possibly Asha
- Type: Smartphone
- Form factor: Slate
- Operating system: Modified Android KitKat 4.4.1
- System on chip: Believed to be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 8225Q
- CPU: Either 1.0 GHz dual-core or unspecified quad-core Qualcomm
- Display: 4″, 854 x 480
- Rear camera: 5MP
Background
Despite choosing the Windows Phone operating system for its smartphones (The Lumia series), Nokia had experimented with the Android platform in the past. Images of a Nokia N9 running Android 2.3 were leaked in 2011. They were believed to be likely genuine, as Steven Elop had mentioned Nokia had considered Android in the past.[10]
On 13 September 2013, the New York Times writer Nick Wingfield revealed that Nokia had been testing the Android operating system on its Lumia hardware, and a second project, known as ‘Asha on Linux’ used a forked version of Android without Google services.[2]
The Chinese technology site CTechnology revealed that, despite the announced merger of Nokia’s handset division with Microsoft, development of the project was continuing until November and 10,000 prototype units had been manufactured by Foxconn containing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 8225Q chip.[11]
However, a new report by Tom Warren from The Verge on 11 December 2013 showed the Asha-like device, codenamed ‘Normandy’ for the first time, stating that despite the finalisation of the acquisition, development of the device is continuing.[7] AllThingsD suggested that Microsoft may not actually axe development on the device.[12]
A further report by CTechnology on the 14th December claims that the device development had been halted, along with an Android-based 7-inch Snapdragon 400 tablet. The two projects were, it was claimed, to have been created by Nokia’s CTO division which is not being acquired by Microsoft, with Peter Skillman, the head of UX Design, at the helm of the UI design. The report claims wearable devices are the new focus of the CTO division.[13][14][15]
A further leak by @evleaks showed a press image with several colour options for the phone.[16]
According to NokiaPowerUser, the device is dual-sim with a 4-inch display, stating that the model number is RM-980, and has a 640×360 resolution.[17] In a second report, they suggest the device may be a member of the Asha range as team was headed by Egil Kvaleberg (from Smarterphone) and UI lead by Peter Skillman (who worked on the Asha Platform‘s Swipe UI).[18]
A tweet by @evleaks on 31 December 2013 stated that “The reports of Normandy’s death have been greatly exaggerated“.[19]
A leak on the ITHome technology website showed a blurred image of the phone, and the app drawer of its’ UI in operation, confirming it is a dual sim device. However, no Nokia logos were found on the device.[20]
@evleaks later posted screenshots of the UI, showing the lock screen and Skype in action.[21]
The device later showed up on the AnTuTu benchmark software as Nokia A110, with KitKat 4.4.1, a 5MP camera and an 854 x 480 display.[22]
Two new photos of the Engineering prototype were once again leaked, and the device is widely expected to be released at MWC 2014.[23] One shows a different app launcher to one in a previous leak, suggesting it is a placeholder.[24]
On 13 January 2014, a press photo showing the tile-like UI of the home screen was leaked,[25] and was accompanied by a screenshot of the Asha platform‘s Fastlane-style notification centre the next day.[26]
According to Eldar Murtazin, Microsoft is not keen on the idea, mentioning there are “too many politics” around the project. He claims, if it is released at all, it will have to be in February, before Nokia’s devices acquisition is finalised.[27]
Another source, speaking to TechnoBuffalo, in contrast, suggested Microsoft may use the device as a trojan horse to increase Windows Phone adoption.[27]
References
- Nokia Normandy surfaces online: A game changer in Android domain?
- http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/behind-microsoft-deal-the-specter-of-a-nokia-android-phone/?_r=0
- Rumored Nokia Normandy prototype surfaces on Twitter, reveals little
- Nokia Normandy – an Android phone with Lumia DNA | Stuff
- Microsoft Should Embrace Nokia’s Android Project – Forbes
- Nokia’s Alleged Normandy Android Phone Leaks | Gizmodo UK
- Staff, Verge (2013-12-10). “This is Nokia’s Android phone”. The Verge. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- Nokia’s version of Android looks sleek in leaked pics | CNET UK
- Nokia Android phone Normandy’s photo leaked – The Times of India
- Savov, Vlad. (24 June 2011) Nokia’s Android flirtations revealed. Engadget.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-14.
- Nokia still working on Android phone, won’t cancel until November. Foxconn already made 10K prototypes. Unwired View (2013-09-19). Retrieved on 2013-11-27.
- “Why Microsoft Might Not Kill Nokia’s Android Phone – Ina Fried – Mobile”. AllThingsD. 2013-12-11. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- “Nokia abandons Peter Skillman led Android adaptation plans, refocuses on wearables, smart glasses for 2015”. Unwired View. 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- Swanner, Nate (2013-12-16). “Nokia Android phone, along with other projects, might be shelved”. Android Community. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- ^ CTECH (2013-12-14). “诺基亚已放弃 Android 手机/平板计划，未来将力推穿戴式设备 | C科技”. Ctechcn.com. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- “New Nokia Normandy leak shows the Android device in several colors”. PhoneDog. 2013-12-23. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- “Dual-Sim RM-980 may be Nokia Normandy with 4-inch display | NPU”. Nokiapoweruser.com. 2013-12-11. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- “More details about Nokia’s “Project N”. Why Android, the Team & missed oppurtunity. | NPU”. Nokiapoweruser.com. 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- “Twitter / evleaks: The reports of Normandy’s death”. Twitter.com. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- “Nokia Normandy Android smartphone reportedly shown in new leak”. BGR. 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- “Latest Nokia Normandy leak includes screenshots of custom Android software”. PhoneDog. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- “Nokia Normandy shows up on AnTuTu. 5 MP Cam, 854 x 480 display, running Android KitKat 4.4.1. | NPU”. Nokiapoweruser.com. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
- “Engineering prototype of Nokia Normandy leaks in a live photo – GSMArena.com news”. Gsmarena.com. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
- Image of Nokia’s Android phone prototype Normandy leaked [Update with Android skin UI] – Neowin
- Nokia ‘Normandy’ budget Android phone purportedly leaked in multiple images – NDTV Gadgets
- Richard Goodwin (2014-01-13). “What is Nokia’s Normandy Project? It’s Android, Jim. But not as we know it…”. Know Your Mobile. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
- “Nokia Normandy Android Phone Ready, If Politics Don’t Get in the Way, Sources Say”. TechnoBuffalo. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
2014 will be the last year of “free ride” in the smartphone and tablet spaces for ARM-based competitors of Intel – at least what Intel is insisting again
With 2013 performance of only 10 million tablet chip sets (for Windows mostly) Intel is still confident in its ability to deliver 40 million of those (with increased Android portion) in 2014. To achieve this they will be doing a lot of enabling across the industry to take the Bay Trail-based tablet BOM cost down to an equivalent level. They expect that the company’s overall margin will be hit just by 1.5% because of this required in 2014 effort. They are saying that Intel will be safe from 2015 on as moving to 14nm process technology with next-generation (even in terms of micro-architecture) Broxton and SOFIA SoCs for tablet and smartphone devices. They are basing this statement on their inherent “transistor density” advantage against TSMC from that point in time on, despite some analysts’ opinion of the economy of scale advantage of TSMC in terms of the number of wafers produced.
Meanwhile the possible direction of leading OEMs got a hint with New Acer CEO introduced to the media [Formosa EnglishNews, Jan 14, 2014]
With media generally reporting that Acer’s biggest mistake was its too early and too heavy bet on ultrabooks it is clear that OEMs will take a very cautious approach with Intel’s efforts to decrease the Bay-Trail based tablet costs down on the BOM level, as it is exactly what happened with ultrabooks. Instead the will try to solidify their tablet market position with ARM-based tablets in all segments of the tablet market, from the lowest cost upto the premium. Moreover, Jason Chen’s appointment to the CEO position of Acer is also showing that even for ongoing efforts OEMs need a very detailed and deep understanding of the SoC manufacturing and even the process technologies. Take note of Jason Chen’s history of employment in order to understand that:
- TSMC: 2005-2013
- Intel: 1991-2005
- IBM: 1991-1998
In other regards we only know that Acer to start new operation strategy in April to focus on BYOC (Build Your Own Cloud) [DIGITIMES, Jan 13, 2014] and that “In the future, all of Acer’s businesses including desktop, notebook and tablet will involve the BYOC platform and it is hoping to strengthen its product lines through the services.” It will be interesting to watch what that means as my previous conclusion was Leading PC vendors of the past: Go enterprise or die! [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Nov 7, 2013].
Now back to the Intel related information in terms of details in their earnings call. Note before that the correlation of Intel and Microsoft stock prices (as well that the stock market was absolutely not happy with Intel results and especially with the “flat 2014” outlook):
The company’s stance for 2014 is indeed not rosy as Intel to reduce global workforce by five percent in 2014 [Reuters, Jan 17, 2014].
From: Intel’s CEO Discusses Q4 2013 Results – Earnings Call Transcript [Seeking Alpha, Jan 16, 2014]
Inserted slides are from Investor Meeting – Stacy Smith (CFO) [Nov 21, 2013] while the acompanying text is from Intel Shares Mobile Progress, Priorities and Product Pipeline at Annual Investor Day [Technology@Intel, Nov 25, 2013] if reference is not put underneath
[On transistor density and wafer cost]
Mark Lipacis – Jefferies
Thanks for taking my question. At the Analyst Day, you addressed your view on transistor density and your expectation for leadership on that vector, but I have to say this discussing that idea with investors is a consensus view that seems to be that Intel has an inherent wafer cost disadvantage that relative to TSMC that neutralizes or more than neutralizes your transistor density advantage and the argument is that TSMC ships more wafers and therefore has more better purchasing power than you and its lower labor cost, so net-net, they have just a big huge advantage of wafer cost that you should have a hard to, too hard of a time to overcome. So my question is do you think that’s a fair view. Can you help us talk to the relative elements of the wafer cost and how you think you can compare? Any kind of help that you give us on the cost dimension would be extremely helpful. Thank you.
From: CES: Process Will Still Win in Mobile, Says Intel’s Eul [Barrons.com, Jan 9, 2014]
Eul points out that Qualcomm, and other competitors such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (BRCM), all of whom are dependent on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to actually make the chips they design, will run into a problem as Taiwan Semi’s technology stops scaling.
Intel had made the point at the analyst day presentation, and Eul repeated it: As TSMC moves from 28 nanometer to 20 nanometer, it will run into a problem at the subsequent step, 16 nanometer, where TSMC will not add any real reduction in transistor size. That, says Eul, means that 16-nanometer parts a few years from now will be stuck at a 20-nanometer feature size while intel presumably zooms ahead to 10 nanometer by that time.
And what that means is that, unable to scale the density of a chip as Intel can, Qualcomm and Nvidia and Broadcom and the others will not be able to integrate as many parts as Intel on a single semiconductor die.
And so to those who point out that Intel hasn’t yet released its integrated baseband chip, Sofia, mentioned above, Eul contends the company will have the last laugh in a few years’ time as Qualcomm and the rest hitting a scaling wall.
Brian Krzanich – Chief Executive Officer
You know I think the first thing to remember is that what really counts in all of this is transistor cost and what we really talk about in our Moore’s Law of Curves and when we talk about transistor density is driving a consistent cost reduction of the transistors and so wafer cost is one segment of that. I’m not going to comment on you know TSMC’s wafer cost versus our wafer cost but we feel confident that our relative level of scaling and our internal wafer cost are such that we believe we have a leadership position in transistor cost.
When you’re talking about any product whatever it is, a logic product that’s a low-end microprocessor for wearable or internet of things or high-end Xeon server. You’re talking about the number of case and hence the number of transistors required to put that logic device together, it doesn’t matter whose technology it’s on to some extent. It doesn’t matter what node and so the more cost effective those transistors are whether it’s 500 million or 3 billion the lower the product cost there is and that’s really what we focus on and why we focus on transistor cost. So I think we stand by our what we said at the investor meeting.
[On tablets]
Brian Krzanich: Our disclosure in November of a new smartphone and tablet road map that will include SoFIA our first IA SSD with integrated comps later this year is further evident that we’re innovating and bringing products to market at faster pace. Looking ahead 2014 will be an exciting year as we build further on this new foundation. We have established a goal to grow our tablet volumes to more than 40 million units. Within an emphasis on the value segment. As we’re finishing 2013 with more than 10 million units and a strong book of design wins we’re off to a good start.
Stacy Smith: In the tablet market, we launched the Bay Trail SoC and have started to expand our footprint and market signature in this growing market.
The 4X Tablet Campaign: This year, Intel increased its focus on tablets with key design wins and the introduction of Bay Trail. Next year, Intel plans to increase tablet volumes by 4X! Eul signaled a rich pipeline of tablet and phablet design wins for Bay Trail including Android and Windows devices spanning price points from premium to sub $99 products from leading OEMs and the China tech ecosystem. He also said industry leading performance, competitive battery life, cost-reduced SOCs and unique features like 64 bit will help drive growth. Intel gave a first-time demo of the performance gains achieved with a 64 bit Bay Trail system running Windows and showed a 64 bit kernel running on an Android tablet.
Note the details about the 2014 tablet market of ~289+ million units in the 2014 will be the last year of making sufficient changes for Microsoft’s smartphone and tablet strategies, and those changes should be radical if the company wants to suceed with its devices and services strategy [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Jan 17, 2014] post of mine. The 40 million target of Intel is therefore less than 14% of that.
[regarding: So on the tablet strategy to get the 40 million you’re saying it’s going to be a 1.5 percentage hit.
CFO Commentary on Fourth-Quarter and Full Year 2013 Results
2014 Outlook
Gross Margin Reconciliation: 2013 to 2014 Outlook (59.8% to 60% +/- a few points)
– 1.5 points: Tablet impact
Let’s say you guys get into the second half of the year and you’re not quite to the 40 million if it’s a pretty significant short fall. Would you consider canning that strategy I guess I’m just wondering what the commitment is if the volumes aren’t there but the cost is there by the end of the year?]
Brian Krzanich: This isn’t a price reduction as normal price reduction would be; it’s not where you are just simply reducing. It’s truly a BOM cost equalizer and remember a lot of our 40 million tablets in ’14 will be based on Bay Trail. Bay Trail was originally designed for Avoton-based PC segments and the upper end tablet [and all Windows]. And so it’s what we are doing here is doing a BOM cast delta relative to the, what the mid and lower end tablets require. And so those are things like Bay Trail may require more layers of a printed circuit board for the board itself, more components on the board and tighter power management controls and things like that. We have a whole program to reduce those throughout the year. So that gives us confidence that as we go through the year, the BOM cast delta will shrink, but if the volume didn’t show up for some reason and I am not going to say that, that’s what’s going to happen, but I am confident it will, but if it didn’t it’s on a per unit basis. And so the spending on that contra would be reduced equivalently.
Stacy Smith: And I would just add as Brian said we are doing a lot of enabling across the industry to take the BOM cast out in equivalent. These are costs at the system level not at our chip level and it will vary a lot by SKU, but to give you a sense for a Bay Trail platform from the beginning of the year to the end of the year we think that, that BOM penalty drops by more than half. And so it kind of gets better out in time. And then when we get to the Broxton generation we think it’s de minimis.
Brian Krzanich: Both Broxton and SoFIA are just specifically designed to eliminate that delta.
Say “hello” to SoFIA: By the end of 2014, Intel will deliver a new integrated Atom processor + communications solution for entry and value smartphones and tablets, code-named SoFIA. In his presentation, Eul highlighted that Intel’s Infineon wireless assets make the company an “incumbent” in the mobile phone market, shipping more than 360M mobile platforms a year spanning 2G and 3G solutions. He said SoFIA builds on the proven 3G communications platform to deliver a competitive and highly integrated, IA-based mobile solution aimed at the fast-growing market for entry smartphones and tablets. The 3G version of SoFIA is expected by the end of 2014, and Eul said an LTE version would follow in the first half of 2015.
Accelerated Mobile Roadmap: While specific product details will be saved for a later date, Eul signaled a robust pipeline of new Atom processors and multi-comms solutions for 2014 and beyond to address devices spanning market segments from entry to performance smartphones and tablets, an approach he called “market-oriented pragmatism.” In addition to SoFIA, Eul noted:
…
-
Broxton – in 2015 Intel plans to deliver a 14nm, 64 bit SOC based on a new, next generation Atom architecture (Goldmont) targeted for hero devices. Broxton is being designed for pairing with Intel’s next generation LTE solutions.
[regarding: If we look at tablets and smartphone, what type of units do you need to reach for that business to stop having a material impact in gross margin from is 10 points higher utilization rates and excluding the contra revenue impact and that’s it? So just looking at the 40 million units target for this year, what type of volume do you need to get in order for gross margin to start appreciating from the west of the business if you exclude the contra revenue impact?]
Brian Krzanich: Yes, it’s hard to say. I mean, I will bridge back to our strategy here. Our strategy is that we are going to use our process technology leads. We will have leadership products that also are competitive or maybe even leadership in terms of cost and I showed some data at the investor meeting that just kind of showed the die size as we progress from Bay Trail to Broxton to SoFIA and so you can get a sense of the kinds of cost structure that we are going to have on a per unit basis. I don’t think it causes on a percentage basis. Yes, I can’t – I am not envisioning if this causes the gross margin percentage to go up, but you can definitely get to a space once we get through these contra enabling dollars where every unit we sell is accretive on a gross margin dollars per unit. It’s utilizing factories that we have in place for PCs. And so it’s a nice adder of that gross margin dollar per unit standpoint.
[regarding: Bay Trail Android tablets]
Brian Krzanich: Most of the Bay Trail Android tablets really start showing up more in Q2 than in Q1 and that’s again purely you know remember we made a shift, an original program for Bay Trail was all Windows. As we came into the midpoint of the year we sandbox [ph] shift and make it Windows and Android and so you know our OEM partners as well are targeting more towards Q2 and it’s just when you do you go and start putting back in that back to school event which is a next seasonal place where upside usually occur.
[regarding: On the smartphone or on tablet space, I think it is true that Intel has a manufacturing lead, but do you think your cost reduction efforts and then the Moore’s Law advantages ever progressed faster than the ASP declines in the space. In other words, do you think Intel can be sustainably profitable in the mobile space which is maturing?]
Brian Krzanich: Yes, we absolutely do. You saw at the investor meeting products like SoFIA, which really are going to be put on to 14-nanometer are fully integrated all the way through with the 3G option or an LTE option and that LTE is with carrier aggregation. Those kinds of products we believe are very, very cost competitive in fact leading from a cost position. In addition, we don’t talk a lot about, but we are already in that low cost Asia market. We are inch and then we are working with ODMs there. That’s actually where a lot of the innovations coming out of for some of these cost reductions on tablets and where we are getting the cost reduction ideas. So we are in that market now. We sold out of that Shenzhen low cost market in Q4. We will continue through it – through 2014 and with products like SoFIA on leading edge technology, we are very comfortable that we can get into those very low price points.
AMD’s Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) and Graphics Core Next (GCN) is coming to notebooks
Why AMDers are excited about “Kaveri” [AMD YouTube channel, Jan 15, 2014]
The GCN architecture that is behind Xbox One and Sony PS4 (among others) and the HSA (quite probably available as well in Xbox One and PS4) are coming now to notebook APUs.
OR how much could AMD reap the benefits (first time) of ATI acquisition in 2006?
OR how much the 28nm SHP (Super High Performance) process from Global Foundries will help AMD to compete?
OR will the next-gen Steamroller microarchitecture be sufficient to compete?
How “Kaveri” is Going to Change the World of Compute Capabilities [AMD YouTube channel, Jan 16, 2014]
If it can game, imagine what else it can do. [AMD YouTube channel, Jan 6, 2014]
The Four Technologies that make up AMD’s Kaveri APU [AMD YouTube channel, Jan 14, 2014]
In AMD Kaveri Review: A8-7600 and A10-7850K Tested [AnandTech, Jan 14, 2014] it was touted as:
The first major component launch of 2014 falls at the feet of AMD and the next iteration of its APU platform, Kaveri. Kaveri has been the aim for AMD for several years, it’s actually the whole reason the company bought ATI back in 2006. As a result many different prongs of AMD’s platform come together: HSA, hUMA, offloading compute, unifying GPU architectures, developing a software ecosystem around HSA and a scalable architecture. This is, on paper at least, a strong indicator of where the PC processor market is heading in the mainstream segment.
…
My insert: AMD Kaveri APU Tech Day at CES [on Jan 5, 2014] [AMD YouTube channel, Jan 14, 2014]
End of my insert
Final Words
As with all previous AMD APU launches, we’re going to have to break this one down into three parts: CPU, the promise of HSA and GPU.
In a vacuum where all that’s available are other AMD parts, Kaveri and its Steamroller cores actually look pretty good. At identical frequencies there’s a healthy increase in IPC, and AMD has worked very hard to move its Bulldozer family down to a substantially lower TDP. While Trinity/Richland were happy shipping at 100W, Kaveri is clearly optimized for a much more modern TDP. Performance gains at lower TDPs (45/65W) are significant. In nearly all of our GPU tests, a 45W Kaveri ends up delivering very similar gaming performance to a 100W Richland. The mainstream desktop market has clearly moved to smaller form factors and it’s very important that AMD move there as well. Kaveri does just that.
In the broader sense however, Kaveri doesn’t really change the CPU story for AMD. Steamroller comes with a good increase in IPC, but without a corresponding increase in frequency AMD fails to move the single threaded CPU performance needle. To make matters worse, Intel’s dual-core Haswell parts are priced very aggressively and actually match Kaveri’s CPU clocks. With a substantial advantage in IPC and shipping at similar frequencies, a dual-core Core i3 Haswell will deliver much better CPU performance than even the fastest Kaveri at a lower price.
The reality is quite clear by now: AMD isn’t going to solve its CPU performance issues with anything from the Bulldozer family. What we need is a replacement architecture, one that I suspect we’ll get after Excavator concludes the line in 2015.
In the past AMD has argued that for the majority of users, the CPU performance it delivers today is good enough. While true, it’s a dangerous argument to make (one that eventually ends up with you recommending an iPad or Nexus 7). I have to applaud AMD’s PR this time around as no one tried to make the argument that CPU performance was somehow irrelevant. Although we tend to keep PR critique off of AnandTech, the fact of the matter is that for every previous APU launch AMD tried its best to convince the press that the problem wasn’t with its CPU performance but rather with how we benchmark. With Kaveri, the arguments more or less stopped. AMD has accepted its CPU performance is what it is and seems content to ride this one out. It’s a tough position to be in, but it’s really the only course of action until Bulldozer goes away.
It’s a shame that the CPU story is what it is, because Kaveri finally delivers on the promise of the ATI acquisition from 2006. AMD has finally put forth a truly integrated APU/SoC, treating both CPU and GPU as first class citizens and allowing developers to harness both processors, cooperatively, to work on solving difficult problems and enabling new experiences. In tests where both the CPU and GPU are used, Kaveri looks great as this is exactly the promise of HSA. The clock starts now. It’ll still be a matter of years before we see widespread adoption of heterogeneous programming and software, but we finally have the necessary hardware and priced at below $200.
Until then, outside of specific applications and GPU compute workloads, the killer app for Kaveri remains gaming. Here the story really isn’t very different than it was with Trinity and Richland. With Haswell Intel went soft on (socketed) desktop graphics, and Kaveri continues to prey on that weakness. If you are building an entry level desktop PC where gaming is a focus, there really isn’t a better option. I do wonder how AMD will address memory bandwidth requirements going forward. A dual-channel DDR3 memory interface works surprisingly well for Kaveri. We still see 10 – 30% GPU performance increases over Richland despite not having any increase in memory bandwidth. It’s clear that AMD will have to look at something more exotic going forward though.
My insert: Kaveri Tech Day: Thief running on a 7850K APU with Dual Graphics [AMD YouTube channel, Jan 14, 2014]
End of my insert
For casual gaming, AMD is hitting the nail square on the head in its quest for 1080p gaming at 30 frames per second, albeit generally at lower quality settings. There are still a few titles that are starting to stretch the legs of a decent APU (Company of Heroes is practically brutal), but it all comes down to perspective. Let me introduce you to my Granddad. He’s an ex-aerospace engineer, and likes fiddling with stuff. He got onboard the ‘build-your-own’ PC train in about 2002 and stopped there – show him a processor more than a Pentium 4 and he’ll shrug it off as something new-fangled. My grandfather has one amazing geeky quality that shines through though – he has played and completed every Tomb Raider game on the PC he can get his hands on.
It all came to a head this holiday season when he was playing the latest Tomb Raider game. He was running the game on a Pentium D with an NVIDIA 7200GT graphics card. His reactions are not the sharpest, and he did not seem to mind running at sub-5 FPS at a 640×480 resolution. I can imagine many of our readers recoiling at the thought of playing a modern game at 480p with 5 FPS. In the true spirit of the season, I sent him a HD 6750, an identical model to the one in the review today. Despite some issues he had finding drivers (his Google-fu needs a refresher), he loves his new card and can now play reasonably well at 1280×1024 on his old monitor.
The point I am making with this heart-warming/wrenching family story is that the Kaveri APU is probably the ideal fit for what he needs. Strap him up with an A8-7600 and away he goes. It will be faster than anything he has used before, it will play his games as well as that new HD 6750, and when my grandmother wants to surf the web or edit some older images, she will not have to wait around for them to happen. It should all come in with a budget they would like as well.
The Importance of AMD’s TrueAudio Technology in Thief [AMD YouTube channel, Jan 10, 2014]
Johan Andersson explains how Mantle [API] will leverage AMD’s new “Kaveri” APU [AMD YouTube channel, Dec 3, 2013]
In AMD Surrounds 2014 International CES Visitors with Breakthrough Visual and Audio Experiences [press release, Jan 6, 2014] it was touted as:
“Kaveri” – AMD’s most powerful APUs ever, the AMD A10 7850K and 7700K (codenamed “Kaveri”), are now shipping and will be on shelves in desktops early next week, with pre-orders starting today from select system builders. “Kaveri” is the world’s first APU to include Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) features, the immersive sound of AMD TrueAudio Technology and the performance gaming experiences of Mantle API. “Kaveri”-based notebooks will be available in the first half of this year.
…
“Surround House 2: Monsters in the Orchestra”
Bringing AMD’s Surround Computing vision to life in an overwhelming and unique way, “Surround House 2: Monsters in the Orchestra” engages show-goers in an instrumental performance by a collection of misfit monsters performing in a 360-degree domed theater. This immersive experience uses many of AMD’s current and developing technologies including gesture control optimized by HSA features on the new “Kaveri” APU, next-generation AMD FirePro™ graphics driving 14 million pixels across six projectors, and 32.4 channels of audio processed with AMD TrueAudio technology and presented with Discrete Digital Multipoint Audio.
Building of AMD Surround House 2: Monsters in the Orchestra at CES 2014 [AMD YouTube channel, Jan 6, 2014]
Oxide Games AMD Mantle Presentation and Demo [AMD YouTube channel, Dec 17, 2013]
Now it is said by them that AMD Revolutionizes Compute and UltraHD Entertainment with 2014 AMD A-Series Accelerated Processors [press release, Jan 14, 2014]
Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) features enable groundbreaking compute performance and define next-gen application acceleration
SUNNYVALE, Calif. —1/14/2014AMD (NYSE: AMD) today launched the 2014 AMD A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), the most advanced and developer friendly performance APUs from AMD to date. The AMD A-Series APUs with AMD Radeon™ R7 graphics, codenamed “Kaveri”, are designed with industry-changing new features that deliver superior compute and heart-pounding gaming performance.
New and improved features of the AMD A-Series APUs include:
- Up to 12 Compute Cores (4 CPU and 8 GPU) unlocking full APU potential1;
- Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) features, a new intelligent computing architecture that enables the CPU and GPU to work in harmony by seamlessly streamlining right tasks to the most suitable processing element, resulting in performance and efficiency for both consumers and developers;
- Award-winning Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture with powerful AMD Radeon™ R7 Series graphics for performance that commands respect and with support for DirectX 11.22;
- AMD’s acclaimed Mantle, an API that simplifies game optimizations for programmers and developers to raise gaming performance to unprecedented levels when unlocked3;
- AMD TrueAudio Technology, 32-channel surround audio delivering the best in audio realism and immersion4;
- Support for UltraHD (4K) resolutions and new video post processing enhancements that will make 1080p videos look even better when upscaled on UltraHD-enabled monitor or TV5;
- FM2+ socket compatibility for a unifying infrastructure that works with APUs and CPUs.
“AMD maintains our technology leadership with the 2014 AMD A-Series APUs, a revolutionary next generation APU that marks a new era of computing,” said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD. “With world-class graphics and compute technology on a single chip, the AMD A-Series APU is an effective and efficient solution for our customers and enable industry-leading computing experiences.”
The A10-7850K and A10-7700K APUs will be bundled with EA’s Battlefield 4, to bring a first-in-class APU gaming experience6.
Product Specifications
Model
AMD A10-7850K with Radeon™ R7 Graphics
AMD A10-7700K with Radeon™ R7 Graphics
AMD A8-7600 with Radeon™ R7 Graphics
Price7
$173 USD
$152 USD
$119 USD
Power
95W
95W
65W/45W
Compute Cores
12
10
10
CPU Cores
4
4
4
GPU Cores1
8
6
6
Max Turbo Core
4.0GHz
3.8GHz
3.8/3.3GHz
Default CPU Frequency
3.7GHz
3.4GHz
3.3/3.1GHz
GPU Frequency
720MHz
720MHz
720MHz
L2 Cache
4MB
4MB
4MB
The AMD A-Series APU processor-in-a-box (PIBs) for the AMD A10-7850K and AMD A10-7700K, which started shipping in Q4 2013, are available starting today. The AMD A8-7600 will be shipping in Q1 2014. Additionally, the AMD Radeon™ R9 2400 Gamer Series memory is tested and certified for AMD A10 APUs, unleashing their full potential with AMD Memory Profile technology (AMP) offering speeds up to 2400MHz. For more information, please visit the Radeon Memory product page.
The AMD A-Series APUs are also available today in PCs from our partner system builders. For more information, please visit our product information page.
Supporting Resources
- Learn more about the 2014 AMD A-Series APUs
- What is a Compute Core? Read our whitepaper
- For developers: learn more about Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA)
- Find out more about AMD’s revolutionary technologies: Mantle and AMD TrueAudio technology
- Become a fan of AMD on Facebook
- Engage with us on Twitter @AMDAPU
AMD defines a “Radeon Core” as one Shader/Shader Array. The term “GPU Core” is an evolution of the term “Radeon Core”. “GPU Core” is defined as having 4 SIMDS each comprising of 64 Shaders/Shader Arrays. For example, 512 “Radeon Cores” equals 8 “GPU Cores“ (8 GPU Cores x 4 SIMDs x 16 Shader Arrays = 512 Radeon Cores). Visit www.amd.com/computecores for more information.
The GCN Architecture and its associated features (AMD Enduro™, AMD ZeroCore Power technology, DDM Audio, and 28nm production) are exclusive to the AMD Radeon™ HD 7700M, HD 7800M and HD 7900M Series Graphics and select AMD A-Series APUs. Not all technologies are supported in all system configurations—check with your system manufacturer for specific model capabilities.
Mantle application support is required.
AMD TrueAudio technology is offered by select AMD Radeon™ R9 and R7 200 Series GPUs and select AMD A-Series APUs and is designed to improve acoustic realism. Requires enabled game or application. Not all audio equipment supports all audio effects; additional audio equipment may be required for some audio effects. Not all products feature all technologies—check with your component or system manufacturer for specific capabilities.
Requires 4K display and content. Supported resolution varies by GPU model and board design; confirm specifications with manufacturer before purchase.
Battlefield 4 is valued at MSRP $59.99 USD. Bundle offered while supplies last. For more information, please visit: www.amd.com/battlefield4offer.
SEP [suggested e-tail pricing] as of January 14, 2014.
See also:
– AMD Kaveri Review: A8-7600 and A10-7850K Tested [AnandTech, Jan 14, 2014]
– Surround House 2: Monsters in the Orchestra [AMD ‘Innovations We Pioneer’, Jan 8, 2014]
– AMD Announces New Unified SDK, Tools and Accelerated Libraries for Heterogeneous Computing Developers [press release, Nov 11, 2013]
APU13 serves as launch platform for new developer tools and sheds light on upcoming third generation APU, “Kaveri”
… AMD also announced today at APU13 details about “Kaveri,” the third generation performance APU from AMD, during a keynote delivered by Dr. Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager, Global Business Units, AMD.
“Kaveri” is the first APU with HSA features, AMD TrueAudio technology and AMD’s Mantle API combining to bring the next level of graphics, compute and efficiency to desktops (FM2+), notebooks, embedded APUs and servers. FM2+ shipments to customers are slated to begin in late 2013 with initial availability in customer desktop offerings scheduled for Jan. 14, 2014. Further details will be announced at CES 2014. …
– AMD Unveils Innovative New APUs and SoCs that Give Consumers a More Exciting and Immersive Experience [press release, Jan 7, 2013]
… AMD also introduced the new APU codenamed “Richland” which is currently shipping to OEMs and delivers visual performance increases ranging from more than 20 percent to up to 40 percent over the previous generation of AMD A-Series APUs1. “Richland” is expected to come bundled with new software for consumers such as gesture- and facial-recognition to dramatically expand and enhance consumers’ user experiences. The follow-on to “Richland” will be the 28nm APU codenamed “Kaveri” with revolutionary heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) features which is expected to begin shipping to customers in the second half of 2013. …
Intel® Xeon® Processor E7 v2 Family (Brickland Platform)
Update: as Introducing the new IBM System x3850 X6: High performance and mission critical! with “Processing power, thanks to the latest Intel Xeon E7-4800 v2 and E7-8800 v2 processors” happened (albeit on [IBM System x Blog, Jan 16, 2014]) Intel cancelled its own videos already available on its YouTube channel.
IBM System x3850 X6 video walk-through [IBMRedbooks YouTube channel, Feb 18, 2014]
The reason became obvious when came the announcement that Lenovo Plans to Acquire IBM’s x86 Server Business [IBM press release, Jan 23, 2014] with “This includes System x, BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches, x86-based Flex integrated systems, NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and associated software, blade networking and maintenance operations.” More than a month was needed to rearrange the focus of Intel’s announcement. Finally an even stranger announcement came out with Microsoft totally missing on the announcement stage despite the record results with its groundbreaking SQL Server 2014. End of the update
OR Intel® Xeon® Processor E7-8800/4800/2800 v2
OR Intel® Xeon® “Mission Critical Expandable” v2
More information (not yet v2): www.intel.com/xeonE7
– Intel® Xeon® Processor E7 v2 Family Delivers Industry’s Most Advanced Technology for In-Memory Analytics to Accelerate Major Business Transformations [press release, Feb 18, 2014]
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
- Introduces new Intel® Xeon® processor E7 v2 family designed for mission critical computing, featuring the industry’s largest memory support1 to enable large data sets to be analyzed rapidly and deliver real-time insights based on a vast amount of diverse data.
- Delivers up to 80 percent more performance and up to 80 percent lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than alternative RISC architectures2.
- The new processor family achieves twice the average performance and has four times the I/O bandwidth of the previous generation3.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 18, 2014 – To help companies in a variety of industries from retail and healthcare to banking and transportation turn data into actionable insights, Intel Corporation today introduced the Intel® Xeon® processor E7 v2 family.
Using analytics enables businesses to make decisions that improve top-line and bottom-line results. The Intel Xeon processor E7 v2 family delivers new capabilities to process and analyze large, diverse amounts of data to unlock information that was previously inaccessible.
“Organizations that leverage data to accelerate business insights will have a tremendous edge in this economy,” said Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data Center Group. “The advanced performance, memory capacity and reliability of the Intel Xeon processor E7 v2 family enable IT organizations to deliver real-time analysis of large data sets to spot and capitalize on trends, create new services and deliver business efficiency.”
Big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) are providing enormous opportunities for many organizations to grow as they create revenue-generating services from the information they are able to derive. The big data technology and services market is expected to grow 27 percent annually through 2017 to reach $32.4 billion4. A leading driver of this growth is the immense amount of data coming from connected devices making up the IoT, which is projected to grow to 30 billion devices by 20205. Investments in the highest performing technologies and analysis solutions can also deliver significant cost savings. For example, Intel’s IT organization expects to achieve cost savings and increased bottom-line revenue of nearly half a billion dollars through use of analytics solutions by 2016.
New Big Data Processing and Analytics Capabilities with Relentless Reliability
The Intel Xeon processor E7 v2 family has triple the memory capacity of the previous generation processor family, allowing much faster and thorough data analysis. In-memory analytics places and analyzes an entire data set – such as an organization’s entire customer database – in the system memory rather than on traditional disk drives. This method is gaining in popularity due to the increased need for more complex analytics. Industry analyst firm Gartner expects 35 percent6 of mid- to large-sized companies will adopt in-memory analytics by 2015, up from 10 percent in 2012 and predicts at least 50 percent of Global 2000 companies will use in-memory computing to deliver significant additional benefits from investments in enterprise resource planning (ERP).eBay, one of the world’s largest and most complex online marketplaces, handles massive data sets of more than 50 petabytes (PB) for more than 100 million users. Based on initial testing of the new Intel Xeon processor E7 v2 and SAP’s HANA* in-memory analytics software, eBay has seen greater performance7 and understanding of larger data sets that will help drive additional revenue opportunities for its customers.
Built for up to 32-socket8 servers, with configurations supporting up to 15 processing cores and up to 1.5 terabytes (TB) of memory per socket, the new processor family achieves twice the average performance of the previous generation3. These enhancements help businesses that run mission critical applications including business support systems (BSS), customer relationship management (CRM), and ERP to operate more efficiently, at lower cost and with faster response times2. For example, a sales team with these capabilities can maximize revenue by pinpointing the best time to sell a product, or let an oil and gas company better predict when its platforms require preventative maintenance.
To reduce data bottlenecks, the Intel Xeon Processor E7 v2 family features Intel® Integrated I/O, Intel® Data Direct I/O and support for PCIe 3.0*, achieving up to four times the I/O bandwidth over the previous generation9 and providing extra capacity for storage and networking connections.
System uptime and reliability also remains a key requirement for mission critical applications. The Intel Xeon Processor E7 v2 family continues Intel’s tradition of delivering world-class reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS). Intel® Run Sure Technology10 is designed for “five nines” solutions essential for business-critical data by reducing the frequency and cost of planned and unplanned downtime.
Extensive Industry Support
Starting today, 21 system manufacturers from around the world will announce more than 40 Intel Xeon processor E7 v2 family-based platforms. These manufacturers include Asus*, Bull*, Cisco*, Dell*, EMC*, Fujitsu*, Hitachi*, HP*, Huawei*, IBM*, Inspur*, Lenovo*, NEC*, Oracle*, PowerLeader*, Quanta*, SGI*, Sugon*, Supermicro*, Unisys* and ZTE*. Numerous analytics software vendors also support Xeon processor E7 v2 family-based platforms, including Altibase*, IBM*, Microsoft*, Oracle*, Pivotal*, QlikView*, Red Hat*, SAP*, SAS*, Software AG*, Splunk*, Sungard*, Teradata*, TongTech*, Vertica* and YonYou*.
Source: Transforming Business with Advanced Analytics: Diane Bryant – Intel [Intel’s launch presentation, Feb 18, 2014]
The Microsoft software platforms especially well suited for it:
– Satya Nadella’s (?the next Microsoft CEO?) next ten years’ vision of “digitizing everything”, Microsoft opportunities and challenges seen by him with that, and the case of Big Data [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Dec 13, 2013]
– From IBM x3850 X6 Breaks World Records in Performance Benchmarks [IBM System x Blog, Feb 18, 2014]
IBM System x3850 X6 achieves world-record performance on TPC-E benchmark
IBM® has published the best performance result ever on the TPC-E benchmark. This new result showcases the ability of IBM x3850 X6 to deliver industry-leading OLTP performance results.
The IBM System x3850 X6 server achieved 5,576.27 tpsETM (transactions per second E) at $188.69 USD / tpsE. This is at least 73% faster than the results published on previous-generation 4-processor systems, and in fact is faster than all the results published on 8-processor systems.
The TPC-E benchmark is designed to enable clients to more objectively measure and compare the performance and price of various OLTP systems. The TPC-E benchmark uses a database to model a brokerage firm with customers who generate transactions related to trades, account inquiries, and market research. The brokerage firm in turn interacts with financial markets to execute orders on behalf of the customers and updates relevant account information.
The x3850 X6 achieved this record level of OLTP performance using Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition and Microsoft Windows Server® 2012 Standard Edition. The x3850 X6 was configured with four Intel Xeon E7-4890 v2 processors at 2.80GHz with 37.5MB shared L3 cache per processor (4 processors/60 cores/120 threads) and 2 TB of memory.
Results referenced are current as of February 18, 2014. For the latest TPC-E benchmark results, visit: http://www.tpc.org/tpce/
The London Stock Exchange finds lower latency & avoids risk with IBM & Intel [channelintel YouTube channel, Feb 18, 2014]
“We are very excited about the E7,” said Moiz Kohari, the vice president at the London Stock Exchange. “The access times matter heavily to us. We run multiple stock exchanges and clearing and settlement services on the backend.”
Speaking at Intel’s press conference, Kohari said that the exchange’s computing needs have a lot of variety, with dense platforms, lots of memory needs, and high levels of availability. The exchange can’t tolerate “latency jitter,” or unreliable server uptime.
“We don’t look at a database or processor,” Kohari said. “We have to look at the whole system.”
– HP Delivers Record-breaking Performance and Dramatic Efficiencies with HP ProLiant Servers [press release, Feb 18, 2014]
Offerings enable rapid business results with a reliable infrastructure for large-scale data analytics and business processing workloads
HP today announced the new HP ProLiant DL580 Generation 8 (Gen8) server and upcoming enhancements to the HP ProLiant DL560 and BL660c Gen8 servers for its scale-up x86 portfolio.
As part of the industry’s broadest scale-up portfolio, these servers deliver breakthrough performance for mission-critical, data-intensive workloads with advanced reliability and a return on investment as low as three months.(1)
The overwhelming volume of information driven by the growth in mobility, cloud and social media is changing the way organizations do business. Organizations must deliver more transactions in less time at a lower cost, while leveraging big data analytics to turn information into insight. As a result, IT must change and scale to address the need for extremely fast business application performance and drive better business decisions.
The new generation of HP ProLiant scale-up x86 platforms delivers the optimal combination of compute performance, efficiency and reliability for business processing and complex data analytics.
Unleashing the power of business data with HP ProLiant scale-up x86 solutions
The new HP ProLiant DL580 Gen8 server, based on the Intel® Xeon® E7-8800/4800 v2 processor, offers the highest levels of performance and availability for demanding database workloads. Combined with unique HP ProLiant Gen8 innovations, the HP DL580 Gen8 server delivers:
- Record-breaking performance, leveraging in-memory technology that accelerates business transactions up to 30 times faster.(2)
- Efficiency improvements through infrastructure consolidation and intelligent management to provide a 45 percent reduction in total cost of ownership.(3)
- Advanced system resiliency using HP Advanced Error Recovery for proactive fault isolation and HP Memory Quarantine for up to 30 percent greater memory and processor reliability.(4)
“With the increased performance and higher memory capacity of HP ProLiant DL580 Gen8 servers, we can provide our customers with cutting-edge solutions to dissolve big data bottlenecks,” Christopher O’Malley, chief executive officer, Velocidata. “This technology reduces capital and operational costs, allowing us to continue building the world’s fastest data transformation, data quality and data simplification appliance-based solutions.”
My inserts here: Velocidata Brings In-Memory (HP & Intel) [channelintel YouTube channel, Feb 18, 2014]
Critical Success Factors for Big Data and Traditional BI [Veloci Data YouTube channel, Dec 11, 2013]
End of my inserts
HP also is announcing upcoming enhancements to the HP ProLiant DL560 and BL660c Gen8 versatile rack and blade optimized servers that offer best-in-class performance density for demanding application environments and data-intensive workloads. HP will be updating these platforms in the coming weeks with new performance and scalability features that will further extend their capabilities.
Extending the HP ProLiant scale-up x86 portfolio
The HP ProLiant DL580, DL560 and BL660c Gen8 servers leverage unique HP ProLiant Gen8 innovations, including a range of embedded automation and intelligent management features for integrated life cycle automation, dynamic workload acceleration and automated energy optimization. Powered by the HP ProActive Insight architecture, HP ProLiant Gen8 servers continuously analyze thousands of system parameters to enhance application performance and proactively improve uptime.HP ProLiant Gen8 servers take advantage of HP’s Serviceguard for Linux, a high-availability clustering software, offering an industry-leading failover time that could be as low as four seconds.(5) These servers also feature HP Proactive Care, a flexible, comprehensive and cost-effective service that improves the availability and stability of industry-standard, converged, virtualized environments.
Today’s news, along with future DragonHawk and NonStop on x86 solutions, demonstrate HP’s commitment to provide customers with unparalleled choice to confidently support their critical applications.
“Organizations demand extremely fast business application performance in order to keep up with today’s hyper connected world,” said Ric Lewis, vice president and general manager, Enterprise Server Business, HP. “Two years ago, HP announced Project Odyssey to meet these challenges and redefine the future of mission-critical computing with a development roadmap that makes mission-critical on x86 a reality while furthering the company’s investment in established mission-critical solutions. Today’s announcement continues to build on this promise of dramatic performance improvements at substantial efficiencies.”
“The rapid growth of big data and analytics driven by the mobile, cloud and social megatrends is creating new opportunities for a mission critical compute infrastructure that can satisfy the stringent application performance requirements in a highly reliable, secure and efficient manner,” said Matt Eastwood, group vice president and general manager, Enterprise Platform Group, IDC. “The ideal platform would be one designed expressly for business applications and decision support workloads to address these needs.”
Pricing and availability
- The HP ProLiant DL580 Gen 8 is available for order worldwide starting at $13,079.(6)
- Enhancements to the HP ProLiant DL560 and BL660c Gen8 servers are planned for next month.
HP’s premier Americas client event, HP Discover, takes place June 10-12 in Las Vegas.
(1) Based on internal HP testing and calculations on HP ProLiant DL560 Gen8 servers compared to HP ProLiant DL380 G5 and G6 servers. ROI on the HP DL560 in 2.9 months, up to 85 percent reduction in monthly operating expenses and overall three-year TCO savings of 77 percent. ROI, operational costs and TCO may vary due to country-specific costs.
(2) Testing conducted by Bwin.party Digital Entertainment running Bwin application. Performance increased to 450,000 requests per second with HP ProLiant DL580 Gen8 using Microsoft SQL Server 2014 with in-memory technology vs. the previous maximum of 15,000 with Microsoft SQL Server 2008.
(3) Based on HP internal testing and calculations comparing 20 HP ProLiant DL580 G7 servers to 11 HP ProLiant DL580 Gen8 servers. ROI, operational costs and TCO may vary due to country-specific costs.
(4) HP internal reliability simulations results using HP Advanced Error Recovery and HP Memory Quarantine. Compared to other server platforms based on Intel Xeon E5 architecture. January 2014.
(5) Based on HP internal testing of failover recovery of a packet or application on a local area network using HP ProLiant DL380 G7 server (2 Intel Xeon processors, 4 computing cores each) with Red Hat® Enterprise Linux 5.7 running HP Serviceguard 11.20.00. Configuration excludes cluster reformation time.
(6) Estimated U.S. street prices. Actual prices may vary.
The Open software platforms (so not the Moonshot HW) especially well suited for it:
– Disaggregation in the next-generation datacenter and HP’s Moonshot approach for the upcoming HP CloudSystem “private cloud in-a-box” with the promised HP Cloud OS based on the 4 years old OpenStack effort with others [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Dec 10, 2013]
– <more announcements to come here>
The Intel® Xeon® Processor E7 v2 Family Maximizes Server Uptime [channelintel YouTube channel, Jan 14, 2014]
After being taken off, the same video appeared as Intel® Xeon® Processor E7 v2 Family Overview Animation [channelintel YouTube channel, Feb 18, 2014]
As of Sept 3, 2016 this video is available only on Intel in Deutschland YouTube channel:
From: Intel® Public Roadmap: Desktop, Mobile & Datacenter – Expiration Q1 2014 [Intel, 2H 2013]
Intel® Xeon® Processor E7 v2 Family — In-Memory Technology [channelintel YouTube channel, Jan 14, 2014]
After the above video had been taken off, on Feb 18, 2014 came this infographic:
As of Sept 3, 2016 the original video is available only on Intel in Deutschland YouTube channel:
Predictive Analytics & Real-time Processing with the Intel Xeon Processor E7 v2 [channelintel YouTube channel, Feb 18, 2014]
Transforming Business with Advanced Analytics – The Intel Xeon Processor E7 v2 [channelintel YouTube channel, Feb 18, 2014]
Intel Xeon E7 SKUs to launch in Q1 2014 [CPU World, Oct 21, 2013]
Earlier this month we published some details on Intel Xeon E7 microprocessors, coming in Q1 2014. The processors for 2-way, 4-way and 8-way systems will be branded as Xeon E7-2800 v2, E7-4800 v2 and E7-8800 v2, and will be built on Ivy Bridge microarchitecture. Besides new architecture, the CPU will feature up to 15 cores, up to 37.5 MB of last level cache, and support for larger amounts of physical memory. They will also add DMI 2.0 and PCI-Express 3.0 interfaces. All in all, Intel is going to release 19 standard-power and frequency optimized E7 SKUs, along with two low-power Xeon E7 processors.
Upcoming basic SKU is Xeon E7-4809 v2, and it will replace Xeon E7-2803 and E7-4807. New standard models are E7-2850 v2, E7-4820 v2, E7-4830 v2, E7-4850 v2 and E7-8850 v2, and they will take place of Xeon E7-x820, E7-x830 and E7-x840. Advanced Xeon E7-x850, E7-x860 and E7-x870 microprocessors will be succeeded by E7-2870 v2, E7-2880 v2, E7-2890 v2, E7-4860 v2, E7-4870 v2, E7-4880 v2, E7-4890 v2, E7-8870 v2, E7-8880 v2 and E7-8890 v2. Additionally, Intel is going to introduce 4 segment optimized versions, Xeon E7-8857 v2, E7-8880L v2, E7-8891 v2 and E7-8893 v2. There will be also low power Xeon E7-8888L v2 CPU for ultra dense servers. Unfortunately, we do not have specifications of these processors yet.
The CPUs will be released in Q1 2014, and will work with C602J chipset, coupled with C102/C104 SMBs (Scalable Memory Buffers).
2014: Jack Ma (Alibaba) going against Jeff Bezos (Amazon) et al.
What will happen in 2014 on the U.S. e-commerce market as a consequence of that?
This is something new to you? I suggest to read first my previous three analyses:
– The Upcoming Mobile Internet Superpower [Aug 13, 2013]
– The value of Taobao.com and TMall.com in China, as well as outside [Sept 2, 2013]
– Alibaba to secure “centuries” of the future of an already “US$150 billion ecosystem of consumers, merchants and business partners” via an internal partnership (rejuvenated each year) of top executive owners (with just 10% of shares) also controlling the board [Oct 3, 2013]
If still in doubt read Amazon Vs. Alibaba: Game On [Seeking Alpha, Dec 26, 2013]
1. In 2013 the following strategic investments were already done in the U.S.:
2. Also because Jack Ma [is] Person of the Year by the Financial Times [CCTV News YouTube channel, Dec 30, 2013] for very good reasons
According to the Financial Times Person of the year: Jack Ma [Dec 12, 2013] this was given for a number of reasons from which I will quote only the following two excerpts:
Alibaba’s sales now exceed those of eBay and Amazon combined and make up about 2 per cent of China’s gross domestic product. Seventy per cent of all Chinese package deliveries come from Alibaba sales. Roughly 80 per cent of Chinese ecommerce transactions are conducted through Alibaba’s sites. And this is probably just the beginning, considering more than half of China is still offline. With 600m people using the internet and counting, China will soon overtake the US as the world’s biggest ecommerce market.
That 2% of China’s GDP would be about US$177 billions (given the forecast of 7.6% growth for 2013 and US$ 8230 billion for 2012 as per http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/gdp). According to China’s economy projected to grow steadily, dynamically: economists [Xinhua, Jan 6, 2014]: “China was likely to maintain steady growth of 7.5 percent to 8 percent in real terms in 2014”. This means that Alibaba’s sales only (i.e. without Alibaba’s financial services, see below) contribution to China’s 2014 GDP could easily surpass US$200 billions by the end of this year.
Mr Ma is now setting his eyes on a new goal: shaking up Chinese finance. This has sent shockwaves through the staid, state-dominated financial sector and shows that his ambitions extend well beyond online retail.
3. Indeed, these January 2014 quotes from the Chinese media are providing extraordinary evidence regarding Jack Ma’s new goal of shaking up Chinese finance:
Tuning up for 2014 reform (2) [Jan 5]:Carr at North Square Blue Oak … points out that e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s Yu’ebao fund lured 100 billion yuan($16.5 billion) away from the country’s bank deposits in just four months.“New innovative financial products such as this are already causing quite a lot of disruption to the financial system,” she says. |
China Exclusive: Internet finance transforms China’s financial landscape [Jan 7]:Last year was widely seen as “ground zero for Chinese Internet finance,” partly because of the phenomenon involving “Yu’E Bao (Leftover Treasure)”, a personal online finance product introduced in June by Internet giant Alibaba. It allows users to place their driblet savings — no less than one yuan — into a money market fund.As of the end of 2013, Yu’E Bao had 43.03 million users with aggregate deposits of 185.3 billion yuan (30.4 billion U.S. dollars), the biggest single public fund in China. Internet finance has for the first time become part of life for many Chinese people. |
China to set up fully private banks in 2014: CBRC [Jan 6]:China will set up three to five fully private banks on a trial basis this year in a bid to further open up the banking sector to domestic and foreign capital, China’s banking regulator said Monday.Private capital will be introduced to restructure current banking institutions or set up new ones bearing their own risks, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in a work meeting.Strict procedures and standards will be set for the pilots, with demanding set-up criteria, limited licenses, enhanced supervision and a risk handling system, according to the CBRC.The CBRC will try to relax the threshold for foreign capital to enter China’s banking sector and ease Renminbi operation requirements, while more policies will be issued to support banking reform in the Shanghai free trade zone and financial reform pilot zone.Tech in China 2013: High Hopes of Disrupting Domestic Financial Market excerpt #1:The reform plan China’s central government released in November 2013 allows qualified private investors to set up banks.Shanda, the veteran online gaming company, is the first Internet company that settled in the newly established Shanghai Free Trade Zone, planning to build Internet-based financial business and a joint bank there. |
3rd payment firms enter the fray [Jan 7]:Third-party payment companies, after a decade of fast development, are providing not only payment services but also services traditionally provided by banks, such as loans.Among these companies, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd – China’s largest e-commerce company – has gone further than others. Alibaba plans to set up Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services Group to consolidate its online payment and micro loan businesses, and provide financial services for consumers and small and micro enterprises – those with an annual turnover of less than 30 million yuan (4.8 million U.S. dollars).The company has made it clear that its two main business arms will be e-commerce and financial services based on its huge e-commerce data. The latter is thought to be a challenge to banks and may change the financial industry landscape due to the use of Internet technology and the huge amount of data that records users’ history and habits.“For the past 13 years, Alibaba hasn’t thought of challenging anyone, but creating something new instead,” Alibaba’s Chairman Jack Ma said at an industry forum late March when asked whether his company aims to challenge banks.“Banks are getting a bit nervous. But I think that getting nervous is good, and it would be strange if they aren’t,” Ma said.“If banks weren’t nervous, China’s small and micro businesses would be nervous,” Ma added, hinting that banks fail to provide enough services to help small and micro enterprises raise funds.
|
Tech in China 2013: High Hopes of Disrupting Domestic Financial Market excerpt #2:It takes only one click to transfer the balance in an Alipay account to Yuebao on either the website or the mobile app, Alipay Wallet. The mutual fund is managed by THFund, a mutual fund company Alibaba bought a controlling stake in in 2013 — THFund raised to the second biggest mutual fund company in terms of the total assets under management in 2013, up from lower than 50th one year ago, thanks to Yuebao. Users can use the money in Yuebao for online shopping anytime they like.Yuebao’s slogan is “14 times of the return from banks”. It sounds attractive, but Yuebao doesn’t perform better than the average mutual funds. The convenience must be a key factor in attracting users. Another attractiveness is Yuebao shows returns daily. |
Tech in China 2013: High Hopes of Disrupting Domestic Financial Market excerpt #3:Apart from running a mutual fund by using user’s balance, there’s a bigger picture for Alipay.Before long, several Chinese Internet companies launched online mutual funds and gave them similar names, such as Suning’s Yifubao, but none could be the same with Yuebao.Alipay itself was established for Alibaba’s e-commerce marketplaces. When one user uses money in Yuebao for shopping on Alibaba’s platforms, that will be translated into transaction-based commission to Alibaba. If Yuebao is widely recognized and users would always deposit money into it, users don’t have to make payments through banks anymore. When it comes to the mutual fund itself, the more users on board and more money tansferred into it, the lower, theoretically, the risk.Fan Zhiming, president of Alifinance for Domestic Market, said at an event last month that they’d possibly make Yuebao a default that any balance in an Alipay account would buy the mutual fund automatically.Alifinance, the finance arm of Alibaba Group, has already disrupted China’s finance sector with services like Alipay and small loans for online retailers. |
WeChat to face tougher competition in 2014 [Jan 2]Instant messaging app WeChat has helped Chinese internet giant Tencent become the first company to secure a position in the mobile internet market, but it is expected to face greater competition from rivals, the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily reports.One of the chief rivals is the Alibaba Group. An employee of the e-commerce business leader told the newspaper that the company was planning to target WeChat in four areas — telecom services, its own IM app Laiwang [with a free data plan], vendors on its online platforms, and through the celebrities using the Sina Weibo microblogging service. |
Sina and Alipay Launches Weibo Payment, to Fight against WeChat Payment [Jan 7]Sina launched a payment solution, Weibo Payment, together with Alipay today. It is already available with the 4.2 version of Sina Weibo app released yesterday. Fan Zhiming , head of Alifinance for Domestic Market, made it clear that Weibo Payment is aimed at WeChat Payment when it comes to the convenience of making payments online or offline, and social shopping. He asked the audience to “forget about WeChat Payment” at the press conference today, saying Weibo Payment will perform better.From now on all the items from Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall shared or shown as ads on Sina Weibo will have a “buy” button that will lead users to make payments directly with Alipay.
|
4. No wonder that Alipay has made significant inroads into the U.S. market during 2013:
- Airlines, hotels and other travel enterprises can now easily connect to the more than 800 million Chinese account holders on the Alipay platform via the UATP Network.
- “Alipay is dedicated to meeting the needs of China’s vast and growing pool of keen overseas travelers by making it easier for them to pay for air tickets, book hotels, rent cars and make other travel-related purchases online from the world’s leading airlines and accredited travel agencies.”
- Among the U.S. online retailers that’s begun accepting Alipay this year is iHerb Inc., No. 204 in the Internet Retailer. In the first six months of accepting the Chinese payment method, iHerb’s sales on the cn.iHerb.com subdomain of its web site aimed at Chinese consumers increased 244.52% compared with the prior six-month period and 684.15% compared with the same period a year earlier
- Without disclosing the total number of U.S. sites accepting Alipay … there are about 10 web sites in the U.S. that already are generating more than 100 Alipay transactions per day. They include the e-commerce sites of retailers Gap Inc. Direct, No. 19 in the 2013 Top 500, and Forever 21, No. 353; travel site Travelzoo; web domain registrar GoDaddy and peerTransfer, which handles tuition payments for international students.
- Meantime Alibaba Microfinance Service Group’s share structure revealed [Xinhua, Nov, 2013] which will clearly help in capitalisation of Alipay for U.S. expansion as well:
HANGZHOU, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) — Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, holds less than 7.3 percent of shares in the newly founded Alibaba Microfinance Service Group, revealed a shareholding structure report on Friday.
Forty percent of the shares are held by over 20,000 staff of the Alibaba Group and the Alibaba Microfinance Service Group, said the report.
That 40 percent, part of an incentives scheme to make “all staff shareholders,” includes Ma’s shares.
Ma also holds 7.3 percent of shares in the Alibaba Group.
The other Alibaba Microfinance shares are expected to be acquired by strategic investors in the future, according to the report.
Alibaba set up the Microfinance Service Group in March to integrate its payment and micro payment businesses.
The Alibaba Microfinance Group is not included in the portfolio of Alibaba Group’s much-discussed initial public offering.
5. As in addition to all that and according to How Alibaba Views International Expansion and Mobile: A Discussion With Joe Tsai [Forbes, Dec 11, 2013]
One man who was with Jack from the beginning was Joe Tsai. Alibaba’s longtime CFO, Joe recently moved up to Vice Chairman of the group and is actively involved in the group’s recent strategic investments.
I spoke to him recently about Alibaba’sinternational expansion plans and how it’s adapting its e-commerce platform for the mobile age we now live in.
1. Up until now, most Americans think about Alibaba Group as a Chinese-focused company. What are your thoughts on international expansion for the group?
We think of international by what we can do in a cross-border context. It’s one thing to think of exporting from China, which is what we have done a lot to date. But it’s another to situate ourselves in other countries. We’re just starting to do that.
We’ve always had a cross-border B2B business.
We also have AliExpress which is growing and scaling nicely. The concept for AliExpress is to bring Chinese manufacturers online and make a global B2C marketplace. eBay has done a cross-border marketplace well. AliExpress focuses on consumer markets in developing countries. For example, we are the largest e-commerce site in Russia. We are also looking a lot at South America right now.
The next cross-border opportunity: there are millions of overseas Chinese in North America, Europe and Australia. They all want to buy from Taobao. How do we bring them back? Every overseas Chinese consumer is like 3-4 native Chinese consumers in terms of purchasing power. There’s no language problem with them coming to our website, but we have to work on payment and logistics.
And on the flipside, we want to bring hundreds of millions Chinese to shop in the United States. This is something which American merchants get excited about. With AliPay, we can enable Chinese consumers sitting in their home country to shop on, say, Saks Fifth Avenue, pay us in RMB, and we make sure merchants get the currency of their choice and handle logistics.
For us, international means starting with the cross-border opportunity. By analogy, if you look at how Facebook has grown in different countries, they started with cross-border as well. Facebook early adopters in foreign countries were all friends with people in the US. That’s how they built a critical mass of Brazilian early adopters who had friends in the US. Later on, those early adopters pulled in other Brazilians to the platform and Facebook suddenly hit critical mass around the world.
2. Recently, Alibaba made key investments in Sina Weibo, AutoNavi, and ShopRunner in the US. Tencent is rumored to be making an investment in Snapchat and has been seeing great success with WeChat. Baidu has bought 91 Wireless. The online video space is extremely hot right now in China. How does Alibaba think about taking your core e-commerce services to mobile and dealing with such threats as the proliferation of Android and messaging platforms?
E-commerce is one segment that’s perhaps the most complex when it comes to mobile. You not only have to deal with browsing and selection but logistics and payment, which implies issues of reliability and security. Mobile adoption in e-commerce is a lot slower than in other consumer Internet verticals. For example 50% of GMV on Amazon and eBay is not from mobile. It’s more like 15%-20% – even though in the social networking context, like facebook, more than 50% of the users access the service from mobile devices. Today, we are seeing high teens mobile penetration from mobile GMV in China.
We could sit here and be complacent about the rise of mobile because Taobao and Tmall have very good positions having captured large shares in mobile commerce, but we’re feeling the opposite. We’re seeing the future and we feel a strong sense of urgency when it comes to mobile.
Mobile commerce could really disrupt the traditional marketplaces in the PC environment. In mobile, there’s not a lot of screen room. E-commerce marketplaces are conducive to larger screens. People want to save time on a mobile small screen. Therefore, the whole model could be disruptive.
So, with mobile, we are shifting from a model of pulling users to pushing messages out to users. Ebay’s web site is a destination. That’s pull. In contract, mobile enables every merchant to push whatever message to a huge audience.
Alibaba Bet On Wireless Business With ALL IN Strategy, Aiming At 30% Market Share For Laiwang [TechNode, Oct 21, 2013]
Alibaba takes Laiwang, an IM tool released 4.0 version this September, as a breakthrough point for wireless business. The market share of Laiwang is expected to reach 30% in a bid to guarantee better user experience and to facilitate the expansion of other services.
Different to similar IM tools of WeChat and EasyChat, Laiwang targeted at pure friend interaction platform by introducing new features such as, burn after reading, an automatic message eliminating service, and the right to establish groups with up to 500 members. The company has launched large-scale promotion activities for Laiwang both internally and externally.
To complete the product lineup, the company will also zero in on Mobile Taobao, Ali OS as well as an imminent O2O [Online to Offline] service. The newly added users of Mobile Taobao exceeded 100 million in the first half of this year, while number of active users tripled that of the same period of last year. Sina Weibo account of Mobile Taobao-like Weitao recorded more than 50 million visitors.
Because of the disruptive elements of mobile, we’re not standing still. We have to move out of our comfort zone of e-commerce. We have to be more eclectic. While the Taobao app is already one of the most popular apps in China with hundreds of millions mobile users, you will see us doing our own messaging platform. We have something competitive to WeChat. It has a lot to do with e-commerce, if you make it large enough. Within the Taobao app we also have a “mini-app” that enable merchants to stay connected to their customers who subscribe to get feeds. This is a very good tool for merchants to retain their existing customers, which lowers their cost of churn and ultimately lowers their cost of having to acquire new customers to replace the churn.
YunOS 2.3 云OS (Aliyun OS 2.3)
[Multicorechina.com YouTube channel, Dec 16, 2013]Introducing the YunOS 2.3Alibaba merges two cloud subsidiaries [WantChinaTimes.com, Jan 8, 2013]
Aliyun and net.cn [http://www.net.cn (万网 – WAN network or universal net) which is known as HiChina (en.hichina.com) in English], two cloud computing internet service companies under China’s largest internet company Alibaba Group, will be merged as a new company retaining the Aliyun name. … Net.cn’s services will remain unchanged, offering its users cloud computing and cloud emails with the continually upgrading system. The website is the largest domain name system provider and virtual server industry leader in China. …Telecom licenses granted by MIIT [Global Times, Dec 26, 2013]
China’s top telecommunications watchdog issued licenses to the first batch of domestic mobile virtual network operators on Thursday, an attempt to further reshape the country’s telecom industry.
This move enables a total of 11 private firms – including e-commerce platform jd.com, cloud computing service provider net.cn, and Beijing-based communication service company DiXin Tong – to purchase mobile telecom services from the three State-owned telecom carriers and resell the services to consumers under their own brands, according to a statement released Thursday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
As the parent company of net.cn, e-commerce giant Alibaba said in an e-mail sent to the Global Times Thursday that the license will help the company to offer customized telecom services to online shoppers and retailers, allowing it to further extend its e-commerce ecosystem.
We’re also doing an operating system for smartphones. The core strategy is to give users an experience that connects their hardware device to content and services in the cloud. It’s an alternative to Android where an Android device is isolated from cloud-based services.
In mobile, the boundaries between e-commerce, communications, social networking, etc., become blurred.
Sina Weibo, often known as the Twitter of China, is a way for merchants who have Taobao store-fronts to stay in touch with their customers and for consumers to share what they like on Taobao, and that’s in part what drove our strategic investment in Weibo. AutoNavi is not just a provider of navigation and map services. They have one of the most popular “local services” apps in China that enable users to find restaurants and entertainment based on their locations. Local services will play a big role in e-commerce in the future.
We will continue to find all kinds of new ways to reach our users in ways that best suit this new mobile environment we operate in.
6. Also Alibaba spinoff moves further into the cloud [People’s Daily, Dec 25, 2013]
A division of the e-commerce giant readies to take on US competition
E-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will extend its cloud-computing services to overseas markets in March, as it attempts to grab a share of the public cloud arena from archrivals such as Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp.
Aliyun, Alibaba’s spinoff cloud-computing division, is scheduled to set up data centers outside China to provide cloud-computing services to local enterprises and Chinese companies’ overseas operations, the company announced on Tuesday.
By building platforms for companies to manage and store data in the cloud, Aliyun will become the first Chinese company to reach out to the foreign public cloud segment, days after its US counterpart Amazon announced the launch of a similar services in China.
“After five years of development and three years of commercialization, Aliyun is able toprovide sustainable services to customers, backed by its resourceful parent, Alibaba,” said Aliyun director Zhang Jing.
The service recently gained the world’s first gold certification for cloud security from the British Standards Institute, a business standards company, which further guarantees its reliability, Zhang noted.
Zhang declined to disclose the first destination for Aliyun’s global outreach. But he implied two options: the United States (Amazon’s birthplace) or Southeast Asia, thanks to its proximity to domestic businesses.
As the country’s largest cloud-computing platform, Aliyun provides cloud computing services for hundreds of thousands of Chinese websites and e-commerce vendors, banks, game developers and others.
Three-fourths of the 188 million orders generated from the Nov 11 online sales day were processed by the Alibaba cloud-computing system.
Alibaba has made a consistent push into domestic cloud- computing enterprises. InSeptember, Alibaba acquired personal cloud storage service Kanbox.
In August, ChinaSoft International Ltd announced a strategic agreement with Aliyun and the Lishui municipal government for a State-funded cloud project in Zhejiang province.
Aliyun may team up with local telecom carriers to avoid local regulatory restrictions, Zhang noted.
7. Finally, as the result of extreme lucrativeness of organic growth in 2014 Alibaba to extend $8 billion loan to end 2014, buying more time for IPO: sources [Reuters, Dec 11, 2013]
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Wednesday it is seeking to extend the draw-down period of an $8 billion loan from January next year, a move people familiar with the e-commerce company’s plans said would buy it more time to launch an IPO.
The original expiry date of the draw-down period on the loan was January 30 of next year, according to the deal terms. Alibaba wants to extend that to December 31, 2014, sources familiar with the discussions said.
“We have plenty of cash on the balance sheet and there is no need to draw down at this time, so we are extending the availability of funds to maintain flexibility,” the company said, without specifying a new date.
Alibaba said the funds will be used for corporate purposes. It has already used $5 billion from the loan facility to refinance its debt.
The $8 billion loan is a key part of Alibaba’s IPO plan, and the extension to the end of next year signals that the public float is remains a long way off.
China’s biggest e-commerce firm has struggled to reach an agreement with Hong Kong regulators over a partnership structure it hopes to use as part of an initial public offering (IPO), a deal that expected to be worth around $15 billion and which may take place next year.
Public comments by its founder Jack Ma and a statement from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in recent months, however, have raised the possibility of a Hong Kong listing.
The company has yet to outline a date or venue for the IPO. Under an agreement with its second biggest shareholder Yahoo Inc., Alibaba has incentives to complete an IPO before December 2015. [Note that Yahoo! Inc. is required to sell its 208mn shares of Alibaba concurrent with the IPO.]
All 22 lenders involved with the loan must agree to the extension.
The banks have until December 20 to respond to the extension request, and those responding in favor before Friday will get an “early bird” fee of $50,000 from the company if the move succeeds.
Note that there is no information yet on whether the banks extended their loans to Alibaba. The delay of the IPO is, however, so lucrative to the company that I would be rather surprised if it won’t be done. According to a latest analysis What’s the Best Way to Play 2014’s Hottest IPO? [The Motley Fool, Jan 6, 2014] “it’s not unrealistic to foresee a $200 billion valuation” even as Alibaba stands today. With all those extraordinary opportunities in Chinese finances, telecom etc. (described above) that valuation could increase significantly during the year. This means that the Alibaba Group will have much more new capital coming under Jack Ma’s control. And that is even more threat to Jef Bezos (Amazon) et al.
It is also important that Alipay is not part of that Alibaba Group IPO, so getting the strategic investors’ money (60%) will also significantly increase the additional capital that will come under Jack Ma’s control.
Details about Jack Ma and his strategic moves for the U.S. market in 2013
You can best understand the personality of the chairman of the Alibaba Group from Jack Ma Commencement Address at HKUST [Jim Erickson YouTube, Nov 8, 2013]
So his devotion to the problems of the society is a quite inherent thing which was driving his life and still will continue to do so, as evidenced by this part of Jack Ma’s Last Speech as Alibaba CEO [Tech in Asia, May 13, 2013]:
Moving forward, I will be doing things that I’m interested in, such as working on education and the environment. Besides work, let’s work hard together to improve China. Let the water be clear, the sky be blue, and the food be safe. Everyone, please! (Jack Ma kneels down to the audience).
According to the Financial Times Person of the year: Jack Ma [Dec 12, 2013]:
But there is another reason for choosing Mr Ma this year: his decision in May to step down as Alibaba’s chief executive at the age of 48 to devote himself to tackling some of China’s biggest problems – in particular its looming environmental disaster.
The Resignation Speech of Jack Ma, the CEO of Alibaba Group [TofuSquare YouTube channel, May 15, 2013]
According to Jack Ma TNC Board in China [The Nature Conservancy’s China Program, June 3, 2013]
Amid much fanfare, on May 10 Jack Ma stepped down as CEO from Alibaba, the business he built from scratch in his hometown of Hangzhou that is now one of the biggest companies in the world. On the very next day, May 11, he assumed the role of his latest endeavor: to help restore China’s environment by becoming the Chairman of the Board for The Nature Conservancy’s China Program.
Meanwhile with Jack Ma concentrating on a big strategic role as chairman of the Alibaba Group one must consider Alibaba’s Future IPO Plans [BizAsiaAmerica YouTube channel, July 14, 2013]
The preparation for the IPO certainly includes international expansion plans as well. U.S. is already the place where one can see that:
Alibaba Group unveils U.S.-based investment organization [press release, Oct 22, 2013]
Strategy to back entrepreneurs with a focus on Internet commerce and emerging technologies
SAN FRANCISCO – Oct. 22, 2013 – Alibaba Group announced that it has established a U.S.-based investment organization that will look to back entrepreneurial teams working on innovative platforms, products and ideas with a focus on Internet commerce and emerging technologies.
Michael Zeisser, who joined Alibaba after leading Liberty Media Corp.’s strategies in digital media and Internet commerce for nearly a decade, heads the team. Zeisser created and oversaw Liberty Media’s eCommerce Group, a roll-up of specialty online retail companies where he worked closely with entrepreneurs and senior executives in growing the group’s annual revenues to $1.5 billion. Prior to Liberty Media, Zeisser was a partner in the Media and Private Equity practices of McKinsey & Co. Zeisser will assume the role of Chairman of US Investments for Alibaba Group.
“Alibaba is run by entrepreneurs, and we believe in supporting entrepreneurs with great vision and a strong sense of mission for their companies,” said Joe Tsai, Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba and head of Alibaba’s strategic investments. “We are extremely excited to have someone of Michael’s caliber and experience to lead our investment efforts in the U.S. The team has been active over the past several months and we have already completed a few investments in the U.S. by partnering with terrific entrepreneurial teams.”
Three U.S. companies have recently announced that they received growth capital funding from Alibaba. They are Fanatics, the leading online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise; ShopRunner, a platform for top retailers providing free 2-day shipping to online shoppers; and Quixey, a leading developer of search technology that enables users to search for content within mobile apps.
Other members of Alibaba’s U.S. investment team include Peter Stern, a senior banker from the technology, media and telecoms M&A team at Credit Suisse in New York who advised Alibaba on the landmark $7.6 billion stock repurchase from Yahoo in 2012; and Danielle Wong, a Stanford undergraduate who recently received her MBA from the Yale School of Management. The team will be based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
About Alibaba Group:
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. Since it was founded in 1999, the China-based Alibaba Group has developed leading businesses in consumer e-commerce, online payment, business-to-business marketplaces and cloud computing. Alibaba Group operates Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com), China’s most popular online shopping destination; Tmall.com (www.tmall.com), China’s leading online platform for merchants offering quality, brand-name goods to consumers; Juhuasuan (www.juhuasuan.com), a group shopping platform; eTao (www.etao.com), a comprehensive shopping search engine; Alibaba.com (www.alibaba.com) and 1688.com (www.1688.com), leading business-to-business marketplaces for small businesses engaged in international trade and domestic China trade, respectively; and Alibaba Cloud Computing (www.aliyun.com), a developer of platforms for cloud computing and data management. Alipay (www.alipay.com), the most widely-used online payment service by consumers and merchants in China, is an affiliate of Alibaba Group.
Regarding Fanatics and ShopRunner here is: Self-Made Billionaire Michael Rubin: E-Commerce Is Rapidly Changing [Entrepreneur YouTube channel, Nov 27, 2013]
Score! Web Sports Retailer Fanatics Inc.Tops $3 Billion Valuation [The Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2013]
One online retailer has quietly grown into one of America’s largest Web merchants by carving out a lucrative niche: sports apparel.
The company, Fanatics Inc., this week raised $170 million in a new funding round. That more than doubles the retailer’s valuation to $3.1 billion from just a year ago, according to a person familiar with the deal’s terms.
In an interview, Michael Rubin, chief executive of Fanatics’ parent company Kynetic LLC, said the retailer expects to pull in $1 billion in revenue this year, up from $800 million last year, through a focus on sales—primarily online—of officially licensed jerseys, mugs, jackets and other such merchandise. He said the company is profitable, without providing specifics, and he has no plans to take it public.
…
The new funding comes from Singapore state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., said Mr. Rubin. Temasek gains a seat on the Jacksonville, Fla., company’s board, he said.A spokesman for Temasek confirmed the investment, but declined to discuss specifics. An Alibaba representative declined comment.
Mr. Rubin said the money would, among other things, help Fanatics increase its $500 million inventory, fund an overseas expansion and bolster its distribution, including a planned new warehouse in the Western U.S. “We think there’s huge potential in sports apparel and for Fanatics to grow,” said Mr. Rubin. “We’ll be looking at Western Europe and Asia as places to move into.”
Fanatics adds 800 seasonal jobs for upcoming holiday season [USA01 YouTube channel, Oct 21, 2013]
Sports E-Commerce Leader Fanatics Launches Mobile App for iPhone and Android [press release, Nov 13, 2013]
November 13, 2013 – JACKSONVILLE, FL – Fanatics, Inc. announces the launch of its first-ever mobile app for iPhone and Android devices. The leading online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise is continuing to ensure sports fans receive the best possible shopping experience, including easier access to the largest assortment of team gear on smartphones.
The new Fanatics app provides sports fans worldwide with mobile access to more than 250,000 products from over 700 teams. Users have the ability to browse through merchandise, save their favorite teams and find the best quality gear from all major leagues, including the NFL, NCAA, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, PGA and UFC. App users also have access to the free Fanatics REWARDS program, which offers free 3-day shipping on everything plus 5% Fan Cash™ on orders over $50 and 10% Fan Cash™ on orders over $100.
“Launching the Fanatics mobile app is an exciting time for our company as we continue to expand our reach to sports fans,” said David Katz, SVP and GM of Mobile for Fanatics. “With Fanatics growing so quickly and sports over-indexing on mobile, it was crucial that we get a great, user-friendly commerce app for fan gear out to our users. And this is just the start since location information and real-time data will allow us to build on this start and create even better experiences for passionate fans.”
About Fanatics
Fanatics is a leading online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise and provides the ultimate shopping experience to sports fans. As a Top 50 Internet Retailer Company, Fanatics comprises the broadest online assortment offering hundreds of thousands of officially licensed items via its Fanatics (www.fanatics.com) and FansEdge (www.fansedge.com) brands. In addition, the company powers the e-commerce sites of all major professional sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, PGA), major media brands (NBC Sports, CBS Sports, FOX Sports) and e-stores for over 200 collegiate and professional team properties.
ShopRunner Helping Retailers Boost Sales, CEO Says [ShopRunner YouTube channel, May 14, 2012]
Alibaba Leads $206 Million Investment in ShopRunner [The Wall Street Journal, Oct 10, 2013]
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has led a $206 million investment in a rival to Amazon.com Inc., AMZN +1.38% one of its biggest U.S. moves as the Chinese e-commerce giant considers an initial public offering here.
Alibaba invested in ShopRunner Inc., which offers unlimited two-day shipping from retailers including Toys “R” Us Inc. and RadioShack Corp. RSH -2.62% for a $79 annual fee. American Express Co. AXP +1.27% has also taken a small stake in ShopRunner.
The deal values ShopRunner at about $600 million, said a person familiar with the matter, and completes a funding round in which Alibaba previously chipped in about $70 million. It isn’t clear exactly how much Alibaba invested, but it did put in most of the funding, this person said. As part of the deal, eBay Inc. EBAY +1.58% sold its prior 30% holding in ShopRunner for a profit, the person said.
…
Alibaba has had designs on the U.S. for years. It operates two U.S.-facing websites, traditional online marketplace Aliexpress.com and Alibaba.com, a business-to-business sales site. In 2010, it struck a deal to sell goods through eBay’s marketplace. In June, Alibaba took a minority stake in Fanatics Inc., also controlled by ShopRunner-parent Kynetic LLC, as part of $170 million funding round.
…
“The U.S. market in the long run is very interesting to us,” said Joe Tsai, Alibaba’s executive vice chairman and co-founder in an interview. “Coming into this market is about learning about American consumers and how the market operates.” Mr. Tsai said he expects ShopRunner to be competitive with Amazon over time. One analyst says that won’t be easy.
…
ShopRunner is headed by Scott Thompson, the former PayPal president who resigned as Yahoo’s chief executive last year after a flap over a flawed biography in a company regulatory filing.Mr. Thompson, who joined ShopRunner in July, said the cash injection will help the company grow more quickly, including adding new retailers. “We’re staking out a place in mobile, hiring more engineers that will allow us to evolve our business,” Mr. Thompson said. He said the company is also hiring additional salespeople.
Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. plans to join as soon as this month, said John Koryl, a division president. “Our customer wants to know she’ll get her item in two days,” he said. “This is a good experiment to see how it goes.”
The ShopRunner funding round marks another milestone for Kynetic CEO Michael Rubin, who sold e-commerce consultancy GSI Commerce to eBay in March 2011 for $2.4 billion; the unit is now called eBay Enterprise. The June round in which Alibaba participated valued Kynetic at $3 billion.
ShopRunner takes a 2% to 5% cut of goods purchased from merchants’ websites by members of the loyalty program, Mr. Thompson said. And it is one of few alternatives for merchants hoping to branch out into e-commerce while not relying too heavily on Amazon. The company doesn’t disclose revenue or profitability.
Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with American Express giving many U.S. cardholders free memberships, a potential pool of tens of millions.
Scott Thompson, Ousted Yahoo CEO, Named New CEO of ShopRunner [FinancialNewsOnline, July 23, 2012]
From Fnno.com, this is the Financial News Network. While a lot of attention has been paid to Marissa Mayer being named the new CEO of Yahoo, it seems her predecessor has a new job as well. Scott Thompson, the previous CEO of Yahoo has been named the new CEO of ShopRunner.
ShopRunner is a subscription service that partners with over 60 online retailers. Customers pay a monthly fee, and are then able to reap the benefits of exclusive deals with certain retailers, and receive free shipping. Thompson was previously a board member for the company, as early as when he was the president of PayPal.
Thompson’s previous position at Yahoo lasted only four months after which he was forced to depart amid allegations he lied about his qualifications. ShopRunner’s current CEO, Mike Golden, will remain with the company as president. For more coverage and analysis of the business world follow us on Twitter @FNNOnline or check out our website at fnno.com
Quixey – Introducing the New Android App [quixey YouTube channel, Oct 22, 2013]
Announcing Quixey on Android, a Better Way to Find Apps! [Quixey News, Oct 23, 2013]
Today we’re super excited to announce the launch of our first direct to consumer product, now available for free on Android — download it from Google Play right here and read about it on the product page!
Until now, most app search has been based on titles and keywords, which requires users to know the name of an app before they can search for it. With Quixey, all you have to do is describe what you want to do in natural language. For example, “tune my guitar” or “identify wines.”
Beyond that, we’ve included a bunch of fun and engaging new features. Whether you know what kind of app you want, or just have a minute to find something new, there’s something for everyone. Here’s what Quixey on Android offers:
Search – App search that works. You don’t need to know an app’s name to get great results. Search for apps by describing what you want to do and we’ll find apps to help.
Trending – Check out the latest and greatest apps. No matter who you are – parent, student, teacher, traveler, athlete, gamer, musician – we have the top trending apps picked for you.
Browse – Browse through categories and subcategories. Take our browse wheel for a spin to find the perfect app for you (not available on Gingerbread OS).
Sample – Curious what types of apps are out there? Check out our sample queries to see what other people are searching for.
Quixey is in beta and we’re committed to building an amazing product that you love. Submit your feedback from within the app (in the information section) or send an email to androidapp@quixey.com. Thanks and have fun finding great new apps!
[Tech Talk Video] The Functional Web: The Future of Apps and the Web [quixey YouTube channel, March 4, 2013]
The Functional Web is also explained by him in this Quixey blog post of March 7, 2013.
Quixey Secures $50M in Series C Funding Led by Alibaba Group [Quixey News, Oct 3, 2013]
Today we’re thrilled to announce we’ve officially closed our latest round of funding! Series C is led by Alibaba Group, with new investor GGV Capital, and participation from existing investors Atlantic Bridge, Innovation Endeavors, Translink Capital, US Venture Partners, and WI Harper.
“Next year, 95% of the world’s population will have mobile access, and by 2016 people will use 1.5 billion smart mobile devices. Quixey is at the epicenter of this brave new world, and this investment will ensure that we continue to expand globally,” said Tomer Kagan, Quixey CEO and Co-Founder. “Apps have moved from novelty to a major factor in purchasing decisions for consumers and we’ve only just started to scratch the surface of what they can do.”
We’re very excited to be working with a company on the level of Alibaba, whose mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. Since its inception, it has developed leading businesses in consumer e-commerce, online payment, business-to-business marketplaces and cloud computing, reaching Internet users in more than 240 countries and regions.
Joe Tsai, Executive Vice Chairman at Alibaba, is equally as excited to be working with us. As he says, “Innovation is at the heart of Alibaba’s culture, so backing entrepreneurs who are developing forward-thinking technology is what we love to do. Quixey has a great vision for the future and a fantastic team to see it through.”
The additional $50 million, which brings our funding total to $74.2 million, will be used to further develop our market leading Functional Search™ technology, which currently allows users to find apps by describing what they want to do. With the flexibility to bolster our already strong roster of talented employees, we’ll now be able to focus on going deeper and deeper into apps, bringing users the information and functionality they want quicker than ever before.
“Building user-centric products is what Quixey is about. We should be the starting point for every mobile device,” said Guru Gowrappan, EVP, Product and Marketing at Quixey. “We give users a more natural way to search for the things that makes their lives easier. That’s the core of our Functional Search™ technology and the core of the company.”
Ever since launching in 2011, we’ve been working hard to bring the build the best possible product for our users. This is a huge benchmark for us as it allows us to make our vision for the future of apps and the web a reality much faster than originally possible. If you have any questions about the funding round, please send us a note at press@quixey.com. Look out for more big announcements in the coming months!
Alipay service gains rising popularity [CCTVcomInternational, July 17, 2013]
China’s answer to PayPal expands into the U.S. [Internet Retailer, Sept 27, 2013]
Three hundred million Chinese consumers shop online, and most of them have accounts with Alipay, the PayPal-like online payment service owned by Alibaba Group Ltd., operator of China’s top online marketplaces. In a move that could make it easier for Chinese shoppers to buy on U.S. e-commerce sites, Alipay is now promoting itself as a payment option for U.S. e-retailers.
Among the U.S. online retailers that’s begun accepting Alipay this year is iHerb Inc., No. 204 in the Internet Retailer. In the first six months of accepting the Chinese payment method, iHerb’s sales on the cn.iHerb.com subdomain of its web site aimed at Chinese consumers increased 244.52% compared with the prior six-month period and 684.15% compared with the same period a year earlier, says John McCarthy, director of marketing at iHerb.
…
Leading Alipay’s international expansion is Jingming Li, whose title is chief architect and acting president of the newly formed Alibaba International Financial Service Unit. Based at Alibaba’s U.S. headquarters in Santa Clara, CA, Li sees a big opportunity in enabling Chinese shoppers to pay with a method that they use widely in China, not only to shop online but also to pay utility and other bills offline in China.
Li notes that China’s increasingly affluent middle- and upper-class consumers made 83 million trips abroad last year [in 2012] and spent $100 billion while traveling. In addition, he says, they spent 20 billion yuan ($3.3 billion) buying directly from e-commerce sites outside of China. They’re especially interested in buying baby products, apparel and luxury goods.
They would buy more, Alibaba reasons, if they could pay with the Alipay accounts they use in China. “That’s where our international focus will be, helping our members continue to use their Alipay accounts outside of China,” he says.
…
Without disclosing the total number of U.S. sites accepting Alipay, Li says there are about 10 web sites in the U.S. that already are generating more than 100 Alipay transactions per day. They include the e-commerce sites of retailers Gap Inc. Direct, No. 19 in the 2013 Top 500, and Forever 21, No. 353; travel site Travelzoo; web domain registrar GoDaddy and peerTransfer, which handles tuition payments for international students.
International web sites can boost sales by accepting Alipay because many Chinese consumers don’t have credit cards from Western brands like Visa and MasterCard, Li says. Plus, he says, “They are in the habit of using Alipay. If a merchant is willing to use Alipay as a form of payment it gives a lot more trust and confidence to the consumer who may be purchasing an airline ticket from a foreign carrier for the first time.”
Li would not disclose Alipay’s fees, but says they are lower than the fees charged by major credit card brands like MasterCard and Visa. Chinese consumers typically fund their Alipay accounts from their bank accounts, which eliminates much of the risk that credit card issuers take on when they extend credit to cardholders. McCarthy of iHerb says the fees he pays are comparable to what he pays for other payment methods, and that he views the fees as “attractive.”
…
Chinese consumers & global travel [BizAsiaAmerica YouTube channel, Nov 20, 2013]
Alibaba restructures Alipay’s parent, Jack Ma’s share reduced [Reuters, Nov 1, 2013]
The online payment affiliate of China’s biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Ltd will be restructured to attract new strategic investors, in a move that will reduce the shareholding of Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma in the affiliate.
Zhejiang Alibaba E-Commerce Co Ltd will be restructured as a new company in which 60 percent of its shares will be offered to new strategic investors, Lucy Peng, head of the restructured entity, said in a letter published on its official Weibo microblog account on Friday.
Ma will see his shareholding reduced from 80 percent to about 7 percent in the new company, or no greater than his shareholding in Alibaba Group, according to the letter.
The restructured company, to be known as Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services Group, will hold Zhejiang Alibaba’s 100 percent stake in unit Alipay, as well as its shareholding in Alibaba’s micro-finance unit, Zhongan Insurance, and Tianhong Asset Management Co.
Alipay is China’s biggest third-party payment platform, providing payment solutions to 460,000 merchants, and with 800 million registered accounts.
The remaining 40 percent in the new company will be offered to nearly 24,000 employees at Alibaba Group and Zhejiang Alibaba, said Peng, former chief executive of Alipay. That includes the share held by Ma.
The announcement on Friday will have no impact on existing agreements with Alibaba and the group’s shareholders SoftBank Corp and Yahoo! Inc, Alibaba spokesman John Spelich said.
In 2011, Ma sparked a public dispute with Alibaba Group’s biggest outside investors when he separated Alipay from Alibaba. Ma said at the time that new Chinese government regulations on third-party payment services required the changes.
The companies later settled, in a deal that guaranteed Alibaba 49.9 percent of Alipay’s earnings prior to an initial public offering, and as much as $6 billion if Alipay sells shares to the public.
“Today’s announcement underscores that employees of both Alibaba Group Holdings and Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services Group are being incentivized to work hard to achieve success for the company,” Spelich said.
Alibaba Group, through Alipay, is introducing a variety of financial services to complement its e-commerce businesses. Besides Alipay, which provides users with an online payment system, the Hangzhou-based company has also started fund and insurance sales, as well as small loan finance.
In June, Alipay launched Yu E Bao, a fund management platform, allowing Alibaba customers to directly invest cash from their Alipay account into a money market fund managed by Tianhong Asset Management Co.
The Zenglibao fund is the most successful fundraising by any mutual fund in China this year, with managed assets reaching 55.7 billion yuan ($9.14 billion) at the end of September.
Alibaba also received approval this week from China’s securities regulators to act as a third party for the online sale of fund products on its Amazon-like Taobao.
China’s Alipay teams with U.S. network [BizAsiaAmerica YouTube channel, Nov 20, 2013]
UATP and Alipay Unite to Help the U.S. Travel Industry Tap into the World’s Top-Spending Travel Market [press release, Nov 5, 2013]
Airline and Travel Payment Summit, Chicago, – November 5, 2013 – UATP announced today that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Alipay, China’s leading third-party online payment solution, to enable the U.S. travel industry to offer Chinese consumers a convenient and trusted way to book and pay for overseas travel.
With minimal change to their existing backend systems, airlines, hotels and other travel enterprises can now easily connect to the more than 800 million Chinese account holders on the Alipay platform via the UATP Network. These consumers are extremely comfortable with online purchasing and enthusiastic about high-quality international products and overseas travel.
China’s increasingly affluent middle- and upper-class consumers made 83 million outbound trips in 2012. China has been the world’s fastest-growing tourism source market for the past decade and it is now also the world’s top tourism spender. Chinese travelers spent a record US$102 billion in 2012 to surpass the U.S. and Germany, both with spending close to $84 billion.
“After years as the most widely used online payment platform in China, Alipay is thrilled to join forces with UATP in this milestone collaboration. We are excited to help U.S. businesses satisfy eager Chinese consumers,” said Jingming Li, vice president and chief architect of Alipay International. “Alipay is dedicated to meeting the needs of China’s vast and growing pool of keen overseas travelers by making it easier for them to pay for air tickets, book hotels, rent cars and make other travel-related purchases online from the world’s leading airlines and accredited travel agencies.”
“We look forward to partnering with Alipay and working with them in this mutually beneficial opportunity,” said Ralph Kaiser, president and CEO, UATP. “We see further growth in outbound travel as inevitable for China. Matching the strength of the UATP Network with Alipay’s proven success, we are confident that we can bring the best that both companies have to offer to this booming market.”
Launched in 2004, Alipay is a cross-border payment solution that provides an easy and secure platform to make and receive payment over the Internet. Alipay partners with more than 180 financial institutions and supports transactions in 15 foreign currencies. It had more than 800 million registered accounts as of December 2012.
UATP is a comprehensive payment solution that airlines offer to reduce the high cost of credit card use and provide vital data for accurate travel management. UATP’s corporate program and data tools, DataStream and DataMine, supply Level III Data for all air and rail travel, and folio-level data for hotel stays.
For more information, visit http://uatp.com and http://global.alipay.com
No wonder that the British Prime Minister, David Cameron and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson are now courting Jack Ma as evidenced by the recent Alibaba Gets a British Touch [BizAsiaAmerica YouTube channel, Dec 26, 2013] video report:
The first wave of computational photography capabilities from Qualcomm for its new Snapdragon 805 SoCs
While Nokia is leading the way with its Nokia Refocus now available for Nokia Lumia [Nokia Conversations, Nov 13, 2013]* being “a great example of computational photography” now Qualcomm is beginning to deliver such, albeit not so advanced yet, capabilities in that realm for its latest Snapdragon 805 SoCs.
* For more information see the Leading edge Nokia phablets for both entertainment and productivity: Lumia 1320 targeting the masses at $339, and Lumia 1520 the imaging conscious business users and individuals at $749 [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Oct 26, 2013] post of mine.
** INSERTED LATER For the S805 SoC itself watch this CES 2014 recorded video:
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, Adreno 420, HEVC 4K decode, 802.11ac, 4G LTE and more [Charbax YouTube channel, Jan 12, 2014]
END OF INSERT ***
Back in March 2013 Qualcom touted the following capabilities for its (then) top of the line Snapdragon 800 processors: High Performance Camera—Voice Activation—High Performance HD Video—3D Gaming—CPU Performance—Embedded Applications. With short videos included in a whole Youtube playlist you could easily understand each of them.
Then this was evolved into Professional photography, now in your pocket [Oct 21, 2013] in which the Snapdragon related message was formulated into:
Snapdragon 800 series mobile processors are designed to give your mobile devices the features and functionality of standard video cameras available today, including image stabilization, picture-in-picture and touch-to-track selections. With Snapdragon processors, you also receive 4K “UltraHD” resolution, with dual ISPs for higher performance and thermal efficiency. This means faster, higher-quality video, increased functionality and sleek portability for performance on the go.
Now that was further evolved into the starting message of CES 2014 [Jan 3, 2014]:
Qualcomm mobile technology is going everywhere. Your home. Your car. Even your body. Qualcomm 4G LTE Advanced connects you to a whole new world of possibilities. And that’s just the beginning. We’re inventing exciting breakthroughs here, so you can have incredible experiences—everywhere.
prominently featuring the new Snapdragon 805 introduced last November with such new features as: Chroma Flash—Action Shot—OptiZoom.
So computational photography arrived first time to Qualcomm’s high-end SoCs. This is even just the beginning of an immense set of new capabilities upto computer vision and augmented reality all enabled by Qualcomm moving to Applications DSP (ADSP) [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 9, 2013].
It is time therefore to examine Qualcomm’s recent Snapdragon 805-based offerings with some details about their research roots which will also make possible to take a glimpse into the future as well.
First let’s watch the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 Processor Action Shot Demo [Qualcomm YouTube channel, Jan 3, 2014]:
This actually demonstrates the touch-to-track (T2T) capability the essential enabler for action shots. It was already mentioned in the messages about professional photography (see in the begining). In fact on the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 Performance Review [July 17, 2013] webinar for industry analysts T2T was already recognized as a “cool concept”.
Now let’s go to Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 Processor OptiZoom Demo [Qualcomm YouTube channel, Jan 3, 2014]
This has research roots in Computational Photography [Qualcomm Research›Research Areas›Computer Vision, Oct 1, 2012]
Opti-Zoom
Smartphone cameras are typically not equipped with optical zoom due to size and cost considerations. As a result, the image captured by zooming in with a smartphone is done through cropping and interpolation. This results in an image that is both blurry and highly pixelated. Opti-Zoom technology significantly improves the clarity of images captured using zoom, through the use of sophisticated image processing technology which enhances the true resolution of the image.
Chroma-Flash
There are certain challenges associated with images taken in low lighting conditions. For example, using a flash can cause the image to become over-exposed, altering the color of the image making it look unrealistic. On the other hand, not using a flash can cause the image to appear very dark. Chroma-Flash technology mitigates these challenges algorithmically and produces an image that preserves the colors, texture and brightness of the scenery.
So the above research was productized in Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 Processor Chroma Flash Demo [Qualcomm YouTube channel, Jan 3, 2014]
For this kind of research Qualcomm Research Austria is one of the company’s major bases (along with Qualcomm Research San Diego and Qualcomm Research Korea) which is running a “Qualcomm Augmented Reality Lecture Series” to provide high level talks given by highly recognized speakers from Academia in the field of computer vision and augmented reality. The RGB++: How “Side Information” Improves Computational Photography and Computer Vision [Apr 25, 2013] was one of that: (The chosen slide shown below is also referring to the original academic roots of Chroma Flash.)
Overview:
Information theory and signal processing have classically used the notion of “side information” to formally describe and analyze situations where providing more information to either the encoding or the decoding process improves system performance. We consider and extend this viewpoint to modern day imaging systems, where in addition to images representing visual information, devices also capture a variety of side information. In the ubiquitous smartphone, for example, multiple sensors (microphone, GPS, accelerometer, compass, etc.) augment the two cameras that have become the norm. Additionally, these devices are usually connected to a large network of digital data. This rich “side information” can improve the performance of imaging applications and enable completely new functionality. Using research examples from our group, ranging from near-infrared to semantics, we present applications of such “side information” enabled functionality and improvements for computational photography and computer vision.. Prof. Sabine Süsstrunk, EPFLausanne
EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne, i.e. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne) is indeed one of leading academic research places in Europe. The EPFLNews – Dynamic video-tracking for sports without physical tags [epflnews YouTube channel, Nov 2, 2011] video is the best illustration not only for that research but also of the immense possibilities for computer vision in the future:
Finally let’s examine what Qualcomm Technologies Announces Next Generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 “Ultra HD” Processor [press release, Nov 20, 2013] was offering in terms of new capabilities:
Mobile Technology Leader Announces its Highest Performance Processor Designed to Deliver the Highest Quality Mobile Video, Camera and Graphics to Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Tier
NEW YORK – November 20, 2013 – Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., introduced the next generation mobile processor of the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 800 tier, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, which is designed to deliver the highest-quality mobile video, imaging and graphics experiences at Ultra HD (4K) resolution, both on device and via Ultra HD TVs. Featuring the new Adreno 420 GPU, with up to 40 percent more graphics processing power than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 805 processor is the first mobile processor to offer system-level Ultra HD support, 4K video capture and playback and enhanced dual camera Image Signal Processors (ISPs), for superior performance, multitasking, power efficiency and mobile user experiences.
The Snapdragon 805 processor is Qualcomm Technologies’ newest and highest performing Snapdragon processor to date, featuring:
- Blazing fast apps and web browsing and outstanding performance: Krait 450 quad-core CPU, the first mobile CPU to run at speeds of up to 2.5 GHz per core, plus superior memory bandwidth support of up to 25.6 GB/second that is designed to provide unprecedented multimedia and web browsing performance.
- Smooth, sharp user interface and games support Ultra HD resolution: The mobile industry’s first end-to-end Ultra HD solution with on-device display concurrent with output to HDTV; features Qualcomm Technologies’ new Adreno 420 GPU, which introduces support for hardware tessellation and geometry shaders, for advanced 4K rendering, with even more realistic scenes and objects, visually stunning user interface, graphics and mobile gaming experiences at lower power.
- Fast, seamless connected mobile experiences: Custom, efficient integration with either the Qualcomm® Gobi™ MDM9x25 or the Gobi MDM9x35 modem, powering superior seamless connected mobile experiences. The Gobi MDM9x25 chipset announced in February 2013 has seen significant adoption as the first embedded, mobile computing solution to support LTE carrier aggregation and LTE Category 4 with superior peak data rates of up to 150Mbps. Additionally, Qualcomm’s most advanced Wi-Fi for mobile, 2-stream dual-band Qualcomm® VIVE™ 802.11ac, enables wireless 4K video streaming and other media-intensive applications. With a low-power PCIe interface to the QCA6174, tablets and high-end smartphones can take advantage of faster mobile Wi-Fi performance (over 600 Mbps), extended operating range and concurrent Bluetooth connections, with minimal impact on battery life.
- Ability to stream more video content at higher quality using less power: Support for Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) for video post processing, first to introduce hardware 4K HEVC (H.265) decode for mobile for extremely low-power HD video playback.
- Sharper, higher resolution photos in low light and advanced post-processing features: First Gpixel/s throughput camera support in a mobile processor designed for a significant increase in camera speed and imaging quality. Sensor processing with gyro integration enables image stabilization for sharper, crisper photos. Qualcomm Technologies is the first to announce a mobile processor with advanced, low-power, integrated sensor processing, enabled by its custom DSP, designed to deliver a wide range of sensor-enabled mobile experiences.
“Using a smartphone or tablet powered by Snapdragon 805 processor is like having an UltraHD home theater in your pocket, with 4K video, imaging and graphics, all built for mobile,” said Murthy Renduchintala, executive vice president, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and co-president, QCT. “We’re delivering the mobile industry’s first truly end-to-end Ultra HD solution, and coupled with our industry leading Gobi LTE modems and RF transceivers, streaming and watching content at 4K resolution will finally be possible.”
The Snapdragon 805 processor is sampling now and expected to be available in commercial devices by the first half of 2014.
The Meet the Snapdragon 805 “Ultra HD” Processor [Nov 20, 2013] blog post gave some more detail about the dual camera ISPs:
Camera:
- Snapdragon 805 processors also enable users to take, edit and share higher quality photos in low light conditions. The world’s first commercial mobile 1GPixel/s (Giga-pixel per second) ISP (image signal processor) packs a large increase in ISP and CPP (camera postprocessor) speed and throughput, empowering users to take sharper, higher resolution photos with advanced post-processing features for low light conditions.
Extensions to C# with minimal breaking changes and safe concurrency/parallelism by providing “pockets of imperative mutability” connected by a “functional tissue” for building large and complex concurrent systems delivering nearly C++ kind of performance
This exceptionally ambitious and innovative effort (to be open sourced eventually) is lead by Joe Duffy who previously brought to us back in 2008 (with his 20 people strong team that time, as final product since 2010) Parallel Extensions to .NET with TPL (Task Parallel Library) and PLINQ (Parallel LINQ, Parallel Language Integrated Query).
After extensive research and exploratory development work going on for years Joe and his enlarged team is ready to undertake a much bigger, in fact ultimate language challenge described below. While this effort is definitely having much greater implications for Microsoft (especially in long term), but the immediate speculations about that might be exagerations so far.
Joe Duffy in C# for Systems Programming [Dec 27, 2013] (mirrored here differently),
as “an architect and developer on a research operating system at Microsoft”:
In the months to come, I will start sharing more details. My goal is to eventually open source this thing, but before we can do that we need to button up a few aspects of the language and, more importantly, move to the Roslyn code-base so the C# relationship is more elegant. Hopefully in 2014.
Update: The language I describe below is a research effort, nothing more, nothing less. Think of me as an MSR [MS Research] guy publishing a paper, it’s just on my blog instead appearing in PLDI proceedings [the most important, Programming Language Design and Implementation yearly conferences of the ACM SIGPLAN [Special Interest Group on Programming LANguages]]. I’m simply not talented enough to get such papers accepted.
I do expect to write more in the months ahead, but all in the spirit of opening up collaboration with the community, not because of any “deeper meaning” or “clues” that something might be afoot. Too much speculation!
[A kind of “best in class” speculation from Microsoft’s Midori: The M# connection [by Mary Jo Foley on ZDNet, Dec 29, 2013]:
… I heard from two of my contacts that Midori — Microsoft’s non-Windows-based operating-system project — moved into the Unified Operating System group under Executive Vice President Terry Myerson. (Before that, it was an incubation project, without a potential commercialization home inside the company.) …
…
Midori: What we’ve gleaned so farA skunkworks team inside Microsoft has been working on Midori since at least 2008 (which is the first time I blogged about the Midori codename and effort). The Midori team can trace its early roots to “Singularity” the Microsoft Research-developed microkernel-based operating system written as managed code.
Midori originally was championed by Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Eric Rudder. The Midori team consisted of a number of all-star Microsoft veterans (indluding Duffy), plus some additional high-flying developers from outside the company.
Early Midori design documents indicated that the Midori OS would be built with distributed concurrency and cloud computing in mind. Microsoft also supposedly planned to try to provide some kind of compatibility path between Windows and Midori (which isn’t based on Windows at all). The early design documents also indicated that Microsoft Research’s “Bartok” ahead-of-time compiler work influenced the team.
Duffy made a couple of public presentations and published papers in the ensuing years that indicated he and his colleagues were working on some kind of extensions to Microsoft’s C# language. …
…
Many Microsoft watchers, including yours truly, wondered if Midori would ever exit its incubation phase. But with one-time champion Rudder moving in November to a new advanced strategy post — plus the move of the Midori team into Myerson’s OS group — something seems to be afoot.While Midori was in incubation, the Microsoft Research team working on the “Drawbridge” library OS managed to support Midori as a host implementation, alongside a number of other Microsoft operating-system platforms. (A library OS is a form of virtualization that seeks to replace the need for a virtual machine to run software across disparate platforms.)
One of my contacts said Myerson’s OS group is going to be determining which parts of Midori have a place in Microsoft’s future operating-systems plans. Based on Duffy’s post, it sounds like the M# piece of Midori will evolve throughout 2014, but it’s not clear when and if it ultimately will be open-sourced.]
[<my own inclusions>About: I am an architect and developer on an operating system incubation project at Microsoft.
I lead the team responsible for the developer platform. This includes responsibility for our programming language, core framework, async and parallel models, and overall developer tools and experience. I strive to write lots of code in all of these areas. We are focused on reinventing how large scale systems software is written, with a focus on reliability, security, scalability, and, above all else, correctness-by-construction.
Although I love coding, I also manage a group of very talented architects and developers.
Prior to this project, I worked in the areas of parallel computing, virtual machines, and managed runtimes, and have over 15 years of professional software experience. I’ve been granted 45 patents, with another 33 pending, and thoroughly enjoy writing books and speaking. ]
[According to his July 3, 2004 post he joined the CLR team at the time of the post, with a primary focus on concurrency in .NET and WinFX. At the time of publication of his book “Concurrent Programming on Windows” in November 2008 his author’s page said:
Joe Duffy is a Program Manager on the Common Language Runtime (CLR) Team at Microsoft, where he works on concurrency and parallel programming models. Prior to joining the team, he was an independent consultant, a CTO for a startup ISV, and an Architect and Software Developer at Massachusetts-based EMC Corporation. Joe has worked professionally with native Windows (COM and Win32), Java, and the .NET Framework, and holds research interests in parallel computing, transactions, language design, and virtual machine design and implementation. He lives in Washington with his soon-to-be wife, cat, and two crazy ferrets.
This is not correct as in Final manuscript for Concurrent Programming on Windows has been submitted [June 23, 2008] he describes his Microsoft carrier path as: “At the outset, I was on the CLR Team hacking on software transactional memory and PLINQ as an evening activity. Then I transitioned to doing it full time. Then I joined the Parallel Computing team as the dev for PLINQ. Then I kicked off the whole Parallel Extensions effort (which is 20 members and growing strong), became the lead architect, and here I am today.”.Net Parallel Extensions [TPL and PLINQ] PM – Ed Essey [AsafShX YouTube channel, April 20, 2008]
Asaf Shelly, a Microsoft MVP interviewing Ed Essey about Parallel Computing. Ed is the Product Manager at Microsoft for the .Net Parallel Extensions group. So he is a member of Joe Duffy’s team, at that time of about 20 people.
Intel Software Conference 10 Steve Teixeria [Bruno Boucard YouTube channel, April 16, 2010]
During the Intel Software Conference 2010 in Barcelona, I interviewed Steve Teixeria, Product Manager of Parallel Computing Platform Developer Division, Microsoft Corporation. In this second part, Steve gives a good description of parallel libraries in Visual Studio 2010. Finally, we talk about Axum language (still an incubation project), that I love a lot. <end of my own inclusions>]
End of Update
My team has been designing and implementing a set of “systems programming” extensions to C# over the past 4 years. …
[so it has the following understanding of opinions that is supposed to drive its work till mid-2014 checkpoint about such an extension to C#]
Lifetime understanding.
C++ has RAII [Resource Acquisition Is Initialization], deterministic destruction, and efficient allocation of objects. C# and Java both coax developers into relying too heavily on the GC heap, and offers only “loose” support for deterministic destruction via IDisposable. Part of what my team does is regularly convert C# programs to this new language, and it’s not uncommon for us to encounter 30-50% time spent in GC. For servers, this kills throughput; for clients, it degrades the experience, by injecting latency into the interaction. We’ve stolen a page from C++ — in areas like rvalue references, move semantics, destruction, references / borrowing — and yet retained the necessary elements of safety, and merged them with ideas from functional languages. This allows us to aggressively stack allocate objects, deterministically destruct, and more.
Side-effects understanding.
This is the evolution of what we published in OOPSLA 2012, giving you elements of C++ const (but again with safety), along with first class immutability and isolation.
[Uniqueness and Reference Immutability for Safe Parallelism (ACM, MSR Tech Report[PDF])
Abstract: A key challenge for concurrent programming is that side-effects (memory operations) in one thread can affect the behavior of another thread. In this paper, we present a type system to restrict the updates to memory to prevent these unintended side-effects. We provide a novel combination of immutable and unique (isolated) types that ensures safe parallelism (race freedom and deterministic execution). The type system includes support for polymorphism over type qualifiers, and can easily create cycles of immutable objects. Key to the system’s flexibility is the ability to recover immutable or externally unique references after violating uniqueness without any explicit alias tracking. Our type system models a prototype extension to C# that is in active use by a Microsoft team. We describe their experiences building large systems with this extension. We prove the soundness of the type system by an embedding into a program logic.]
Async programming at scale.
The community has been ’round and ’round on this one, namely whether to use continuation-passing or lightweight blocking coroutines. This includes C# but also pretty much every other language on the planet. The key innovation here is a composable type-system that is agnostic to the execution model, and can map efficiently to either one. It would be arrogant to claim we’ve got the one right way to expose this stuff, but having experience with many other approaches, I love where we landed.
Type-safe systems programming.
It’s commonly claimed that with type-safety comes an inherent loss of performance. It is true that bounds checking is non-negotiable, and that we prefer overflow checking by default. It’s surprising what a good optimizing compiler can do here, versus JIT compiling. (And one only needs to casually audit some recent security bulletins to see why these features have merit.) Other areas include allowing you to do more without allocating. Like having lambda-based APIs that can be called with zero allocations (rather than the usual two: one for the delegate, one for the display). And being able to easily carve out sub-arrays and sub-strings without allocating.
Modern error model.
This is another one that the community disagrees about. We have picked what I believe to be the sweet spot: contracts everywhere (preconditions, postconditions, invariants, assertions, etc), fail-fast as the default policy, exceptions for the rare dynamic failure (parsing, I/O, etc), and typed exceptions only when you absolutely need rich exceptions. All integrated into the type system in a 1st class way, so that you get all the proper subtyping behavior necessary to make it safe and sound.
Modern frameworks.
This is a catch-all bucket that covers things like async LINQ, improved enumerator support that competes with C++ iterators in performance and doesn’t demand double-interface dispatch to extract elements, etc. To be entirely honest, this is the area we have the biggest list of “designed but not yet implemented features”, spanning things like void-as-a-1st-class-type, non-null types, traits, 1st class effect typing, and more. I expect us to have a handful in our mid-2014 checkpoint, but not very many.
[while the rationale about such an extension to C# is the following]
1. “Why a new language?” …
In the upper-left, you’ve got garbage collected languages that place a premium on developer productivity. Over the past few years, JavaScript performance has improved dramatically, thanks to Google leading the way and showing what is possible. Recently, folks have done the same with PHP. It’s clear that there’s a whole family of dynamically typed languages that are now giving languages like C# and Java a run for their money. The choice is now less about performance, and more about whether you want a static type system. …
In the lower-right, you’ve got pedal-to-the-metal performance. Let’s be honest, most programmers wouldn’t place C# and Java in the same quadrant, and I agree. I’ve seen many people run away from garbage collection back to C++, with a sour taste permeating their mouths. (To be fair, this is only partly due to garbage collection itself; it’s largely due to poor design patterns, frameworks, and a lost opportunity to do better in the language.) Java is closer than C# thanks to the excellent work in HotSpot-like VMs which employ code pitching and stack allocation. But still, most hard-core systems programmers still choose C++ over C# and Java because of the performance advantages. Despite C++11 inching closer to languages like C# and Java in the areas of productivity and safety, it’s an explicit non-goal to add guaranteed type-safety to C++. You encounter the unsafety far less these days, but I am a firm believer that, as with pregnancy, “you can’t be half-safe.” Its presence means you must always plan for the worst case, and use tools to recover safety after-the-fact, rather than having it in the type system.
Our top-level goal was to explore whether you really have to choose between these quadrants. In other words, is there a sweet spot somewhere in the top-right? After multiple years’ of work, including applying this to an enormous codebase, I believe the answer is “Yes!”
The result should be seen more of a set of extensions to C# — with minimal breaking changes — than a completely new language.
2. “Why base it on C#?”
Type-safety is a non-negotiable aspect of our desired language, and C# represents a pretty darn good “modern type-safe C++” canvas on which to begin painting. It is closer to what we want than, say, Java, particularly because of the presence of modern features like lambdas and delegates. There are other candidate languages in this space, too, these days, most notably D, Rust, and Go. But when we began, these languages had either not surfaced yet, or had not yet invested significantly in our intended areas of focus. And hey, my team works at Microsoft, where there is ample C# talent and community just an arm’s length away, particularly in our customer-base. I am eager to collaborate with experts in these other language communities, of course, and have already shared ideas with some key people. The good news is that our lineage stems from similar origins in C, C++, Haskell, and deep type-systems work in the areas of regions, linearity, and the like.
3. “Why not base it on C++?”
As we’ve progressed, I do have to admit that I often wonder whether we should have started with C++, and worked backwards to carve out a “safe subset” of the language. We often find ourselves “tossing C# and C++ in a blender to see what comes out,” and I will admit at times C# has held us back. Particularly when you start thinking about RAII, deterministic destruction, references, etc. Generics versus templates is a blog post of subtleties in its own right. I do expect to take our learnings and explore this avenue at some point, largely for two reasons: (1) it will ease portability for a larger number of developers (there’s a lot more C++ on Earth than C#), and (2) I dream of standardizing the ideas, so that the OSS community also does not need to make the difficult “safe/productive vs. performant” decision. But for the initial project goals, I am happy to have begun with C#, not the least reason for which is the rich .NET frameworks that we could use as a blueprint (noting that they needed to change pretty heavily to satisfy our goals).
“a few glimpses into this work over the years”:
InfoQ interview about safe concurrency [April 11, 2013]
I mentioned a few months back that my team had collaborated with MSR to publish a paper to OOPSLA about some novel aspects of our programming language (see here and here).
I was excited when Jonathan over at InfoQ asked to interview me about this work. We had a fun back and forth, and I hope the result helps to clarify some of the design goals and decisions we made along the way.
You can check it out here: Uniqueness and Reference Immutability for Safe Parallelism.
Imperative + Functional == 🙂 [Dec 8, 2012]
I mentioned recently that a paper from my team appeared at OOPSLA in October:
- Uniqueness and Reference Immutability for Safe Parallelism (ACM, MSR Tech Report[PDF])
It’s refreshing that we were able to release it. Our project only occasionally gets a public shout-out, usually when something leaks by accident. But this time it was intentional.
I began the language work described about 5 years ago, and it’s taken several turns of the crank to get to a good point. (Hint: several more than even what you see in the paper.) Given the novel proof work in collaboration with our intern, folks in MSR, and a visiting professor expert in the area, however, it seemed like a good checkpoint that would be sufficiently interesting to release to the public. Perhaps some day Microsoft’s development community will get to try it out in earnest.
There seems to have been some confusion over the goals of this work. I wanted to take a moment to clear the air.
…
This first goal is proving to be my fondest aspect of the language. The ability to have “pockets of imperative mutability,” familiar to programmers with C, C++, C#, and Java backgrounds, connected by a “functional tissue,” is not only clarifying, but works quite well in practice for building large and complex concurrent systems. It turns out many systems follow this model. Concurrent Haskell shares this high-level architecture, as does Erlang. Well-written C# systems do the same, though the language doesn’t (yet) help you to get it right.
Of course, as called out by the second goal, immutability and controlled side-effects are tremendously useful features on their own. Novel optimizations abound.
And it helps programmers declare and verify their intent. As mentioned in the paper, we have found/prevented many significant bugs this way. …
…
The effort grew out of my work on Software Transactional Memory in 2004, then Parallel Extensions (TPL and PLINQ), and then my book, a few years later. I had grown frustrated that our programming languages didn’t help us write correct concurrent code. Instead, these systems simply keep offering more and more unsafe building blocks and synchronization primitives. Although I admit to contributing to the mess, it continues to this day. How many flavors of tasks and blocking queues does the world need? I was also dismayed by the oft-cited “functional programming cures everything” mantra, which clearly isn’t true: most languages, Haskell aside, still offer mutability. And few of them track said mutability in a way that is visible to the type system (Haskell, again, being the exception). This means that races are still omnipresent, and thus concurrent programs expensive and error prone to write and maintain.
…
joeduffy December 28, 2013 at 7:42 pm
Sorry if my explanation was unclear on this.
Basically, a goal was that any C# compiles in this new language, and then there are a bunch of new features that are opt-in.
This entailed some sacrifices in the area of defaults — and is something we constantly revisit.
What I meant by needing to change the frameworks is that, in order to really take advantage of the language, the frameworks need to be designed a bit differently. The performance problems we see in .NET are as much due to the frameworks and allocation-heavy designs of them (e.g., it’s a minor thing, but see String.Split; layers of APIs get built atop something with O(N) allocations). In principle, I suppose you could do without this step, but you’d be leaving a lot on the table.
It’s still really unclear where we will land here once all is said and done. I like that we’ve left a few doors open for ourselves.
Joe Duffy’s credentials:
-
A HUGE CATEGORY ARCHIVES: TECHNOLOGY SINCE 2004
- His Professional .NET Framework 2.0 (Programmer to Programmer) [April 10, 2006] book which according to his post “used primarily a breadth-oriented approach” while the next one (see below) was planned to “cover a smaller set of topics, albeit very depth-oriented.”
- His “Concurrent Programming on Windows” [November, 2008] book for which he:
– collected what do you want to see? [Oct 21, 2006] input
– gave Book update [July 30, 2007] indicating that “it has taken so long are numerous, but the primary reason is that the content is quite deep and detail-oriented—more than I expected at the start—and I’ve wanted to take the time to get it just right rather than cut corners” as well that “some of the abstractions I’ve built while writing the book will likely become part of a future release of the .NET Framework”
– Final manuscript for Concurrent Programming on Windows has been submitted [June 23, 2008] where he describes his Microsoft carrier path as: “At the outset, I was on the CLR Team hacking on software transactional memory and PLINQ as an evening activity. Then I transitioned to doing it full time. Then I joined the Parallel Computing team as the dev for PLINQ. Then I kicked off the whole Parallel Extensions effort (which is 20 members and growing strong), became the lead architect, and here I am today.”
– “started down the long road of writing a” 2nd edition of Concurrent Programming on Windows [Sept 28, 2009] although as of Jan 3, 2013 there is nothing out of that - A new book: Notation and Thought [Nov 11, 2008] was published as a preliminary edition dowloadable freely. It traces the lineage of imperative, functional, logic, declarative and domain-specific family trees through the most influential languages–those that have deeply impacted the way that programmers think and write–and provides insight into the motivation behind them, their major influences, and the important features that each language contributed. The book is still in preparation.
-
A HUGE CATEGORY ARCHIVES: BOOKS SINCE 2004 showing an enormous list of readings for his professional self-education
-
Some classics he is writing about in his blog:
– Butler Lampson’s “Hints for Computer System Design” [June 8, 2007]
– Dijkstra: My recollection of operating system design [Nov 12, 2006]
– Paul Graham on great hackers [Dec 24, 2004]
– John McCarthy, Scheme papers etc. in Linkopedia [Oct 12, 2004] - Some programming language related stuff:
– Announcing the Axum programming language [May 8, 2009] as “the parallel computing team just shipped an early release Axum (fka Maestro), an actor based programming language with message passing and strong isolation” and noting “recently shifted my focus to a new project with the aim of applying these ideas very broadly for a whole new platform”. Note that the link of new project is pointing to Christopher Brumme’s (cbrumme’s) Sept 2006 post moving to “an incubation team about a year ago, exploring evolution and revolution in operating systems … a fascinating area that includes devices, concurrency, scheduling, security, distribution, application model, programming model and even some aspects of user interaction (where I am totally out of my depth) … and, as you might expect with my background, our effort also includes managed programming”.
(The “Framework Design Guidelines, Second Edition, Sept 23, 2008” is listing Christopher Brumme as “annotator” described as: “… joined Microsoft in 1997, when the Common Language Runtime (CLR) team was being formed. Since then, he has contributed to the execution engine portions of the codebase and more broadly to the design. He is currently focused on concurrency issues in managed code. Prior to joining the CLR team, Chris was an architect at Borland and Oracle”. There is no later information about him, Microsoft or not.)
– Longing for higher-kinded C# [Nov 4, 2008]
– Haskell, STM, and love [April 3, 2005] where he noted “I love Haskell. So much that I’m now writing a compiler for it. In my “spare” time, of course. (Which means just a couple hours a week since my book is priority #1 at the moment.)”
Talks (typically recorded as well):
- UWTV [University of Washington TV] talk: Microsoft’s Parallel Computing Platform, Applied Research in a Product Setting [Oct 31, 2008]: “It was recorded and will eventually air on UWTV, but has also been posted online: …The goal of Microsoft’s Parallel Computing Platform (PCP) team … This talk examines PCP’s current progress, explicitly relating it to specific research of the past and present, in addition to surveying future efforts and possible research opportunities. … If you’re not aware of the work we’re doing in Visual Studio 2010 — both in .NET 4.0 and C++ — this talk gives a pretty good overview of all of it.”
- A tour of the new Parallel Extensions CTP on Channel9 [June 5, 2008]
- PDC’08: Concurrent, Multi-core Programming on Windows and .NET [May 29, 2008]: “PDC’08 is officially on for October 27-30th this year: http://microsoftpdc.com/. My team will certainly have some really fun stuff to show off, and just glancing at the preliminary list of teaser sessions, it’s going to be a blast. … Concurrent, Multi-core Programming on Windows and .NET… Joe Duffy leads development for Microsoft’s Parallel Extensions to .NET technology, a set of library and runtime technologies for concurrent and parallel computing. He founded the project in 2006 with Parallel Language Integrated Query (aka PLINQ), an innovative declarative parallel query analysis and execution engine. Prior to Parallel Extensions, Joe worked on transactional memory, library and VM support for concurrency in the Common Language Runtime (CLR) team, and has written 3 functional language compilers (Scheme, Common LISP, and Haskell). He has written two books, including Concurrent Programming on Windows (Addison-Wesley, 2008), and in his spare time reads and writes (code and text), plays guitar, and studies music theory.”
- Channel9 on TPL [Feb 19, 2008]: “to discuss the Task Parallel Library component of Parallel Extensions.”
- New Channel9 vid: Programming in the Age of Concurrency – PFX [Oct 13, 2008]: “Parallel Extensions for the .NET Framework (PFX), a managed programming model for data parallelism, task parallelism, scheduling, and coordination on parallel hardware.”
- Upcoming speaking at JAOO’06: Concurrency and the composition of frameworks [June 29, 2006]: “… at JAOO’06 in Denmark this October … Concurrency and the composition of frameworks … This talk presents an overview of the problem, identifies some key challenges, and proposes some direction for enabling our software to both take advantage of concurrency and to avoid inhibiting it.”
- PDC Talk: Writing a Compiler in One Hour [Oct 4, 2005]
- PDC: Programming with Concurrency [July 17, 2005]: “my concurrency talk for PDC …talk’s focus is on the hows and whys of concurrency with a good mix of the realities of the Windows platform thrown in.”
- PDC 2k5: talk [July 14, 2005]
Articles (MSDN or elsewhere):
- ParallelFX MSDN mag articles [Sept 15, 2007]
- MSDN Magazine: 9 Reusable Parallel Data Structures and Algorithms [April, 12, 2007]
- New app responsiveness article in Dr. Dobb’s [Sept 22, 2006]: “… Using concurrency to enhance user experiences … Here are some good follow-up references: …“
- Hello PLINQ [Sept 13, 2006]: “… Microsoft’s PLinq to Speed Program Execution (eWeek)… MS eyes multicore technology (InfoWorld) …”
- MSDN magazine: Concurrency for scalability [Aug 1, 2006]
- .NET Rocks interview and new deadlocks article [March 8, 2006]: “… .NET Rocks Interview on … guess what … Concurrency … No More Hangs: Advanced Techniques to Avoid and Detect Deadlocks in the latest issue of MSDN Magazine. It’s now available online. …”
- MSDN magazine: Transactions for memory [Dec 13, 2005]
AMD’s dense server strategy of mixing next-gen x86 Opterons with 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57 based Opterons on the SeaMicro Freedom™ fabric to disrupt the 2014 datacenter market using open source software (so far)
… so far, as Microsoft was in a “shut-up and ship” mode of operation during 2013 and could deliver its revolutionary Cloud OS with its even more disruptive Big Data solution for x86 only (that is likely to change as 64-bit ARM will be delivered with servers in H2 CY14).
Update: Disruptive Technologies for the Datacenter – Andrew Feldman, GM and CVP, AMD [Open Compute Project, Jan 28, 2014]
Note from the press release given below that: “The AMD Opteron A-Series development kit is packaged in a Micro-ATX form factor”. Take the note of the topmost message: “Optimized for dense compute – High-density, power-sensitive scale-out workloads: web hosting, data analytics, caching, storage”.
AMD to Accelerate the ARM Server Ecosystem with the First ARM-based CPU and Development Platform from a Server Processor Vendor [press release, Jan 28, 2014]
AMD also announced the imminent sampling of the ARM-based processor, named the AMD Opteron™ A1100 Series, and a development platform, which includes an evaluation board and a comprehensive software suite.
This should be the evaluation board for the development platform with imminent sampling.
In addition, AMD announced that it would be contributing to the Open Compute Project a new micro-server design using the AMD Opteron A-Series, as part of the common slot architecture specification for motherboards dubbed “Group Hug.”
| From OCP Summit IV: Breaking Up the Monolith [blog of the Open Compute Project, Jan 16, 2013] … “Group Hug” board: Facebook is contributing a new common slot architecture specification for motherboards. This specification — which we’ve nicknamed “Group Hug” — can be used to produce boards that are completely vendor-neutral and will last through multiple processor generations. The specification uses a simple PCIe x8 connector to link the SOCs to the board. … How does AMD support the Open Compute common slot architecture? [AMD YouTube channel, Oct 3, 2013] Learn more about AMD Open Compute: http://bit.ly/AMD_OpenCompute Dense computing is the latest trend in datacenter technology, and the Open Compute Project is driving standards codenamed Common Slot. In this video, AMD explains Common Slot and how the AMD APU and ARM offerings will power next generation data centers.
See also: Facebook Saved Over A Billion Dollars By Building Open Sourced Servers [TechCrunch, Jan 28, 2014] |
The AMD Opteron A-Series processor, codenamed “Seattle,” will sample this quarter along with a development platform that will make software design on the industry’s premier ARM–based server CPU quick and easy. AMD is collaborating with industry leaders to enable a robust 64-bit software ecosystem for ARM-based designs from compilers and simulators to hypervisors, operating systems and application software, in order to address key workloads in Web-tier and storage data center environments. The AMD Opteron A-Series development platform will be supported by a broad set of tools and software including a standard UEFI boot and Linux environment based on the Fedora Project, a Red Hat-sponsored, community-driven Linux distribution.
…AMD continues to drive the evolution of the open-source data center from vision to reality and bring choice among processor architectures. It is contributing the new AMD Open CS 1.0 Common Slot design based on the AMD Opteron A-Series processor compliant with the new Common Slot specification, also announced today, to the Open Compute Project.
…
AMD announces plans to sample 64-bit ARM Opteron A “Seattle” processors [AMD Blogs > AMD Business, Jan 28, 2014]
AMD’s rich history in server-class silicon includes a number of notable firsts including the first 64-bit x86 architecture and true multi-core x86 processors. AMD adds to that history by announcing that its revolutionary AMD Opteron™ A-series 64-bit ARM processors, codenamed “Seattle,” will be sampling this quarter.
AMD Opteron A-Series processors combine AMD’s expertise in delivering server-class silicon with ARM’s trademark low-power architecture and contributing to the Open Source software ecosystem that is rapidly growing around the ARM 64-bit architecture. AMD Opteron A-Series processors make use of ARM’s 64-bit ARMv8 architecture to provide true server-class features in a power efficient solution.
AMD plans for the AMD Opteron™ A1100 processors to be available in the second half of 2014 with four or eight ARM Cortex A57 cores, up to 4MB of shared Level 2 cache and 8MB of shared Level 3 cache. The AMD Opteron A-Series processor supports up to 128GB of DDR3 or DDR4 ECC memory as unbuffered DIMMs, registered DIMMs or SODIMMs.
The ARMv8 architecture is the first from ARM to have 64-bit support, something that AMD brought to the x86 market in 2003 with the AMD Opteron processor. Not only can the ARMv8-based Cortex A-57 architecture address large pools of memory, it has been designed from the ground up to provide the optimal balance of performance and power efficiency to address the broad spectrum of scale-out data center workloads.
With more than a decade of experience in designing server-class solutions silicon, AMD took the ARM Cortex A57 core, added a server-class memory controller, and included features resulting in a processor that meets the demands of scale-out workloads. A requirement of scale-out workloads is high performance connectivity, and the AMD Opteron A1100 processor has extensive integrated I/O, including eight PCI Express Gen 3 lanes, two 10 GB/s Ethernet and eight SATA 3 ports.
Scale-out workloads are becoming critical building blocks in today’s data centers. These workloads scale over hundreds or thousands of servers, making power efficient performance critical in keeping total cost of ownership (TCO) low. The AMD Opteron A-Series meets the demand of these workloads through intelligent silicon design and by supporting a number of operating system and software projects.
As part of delivering a server-class solution, AMD has invested in the software ecosystem that will support AMD Opteron A-Series processors. AMD is a gold member of the Linux Foundation, the organisation that oversees the development of the Linux kernel, and is a member of Linaro, a significant contributor to the Linux kernel. Alongside collaboration with the Linux Foundation and Linaro, AMD itself is listed as a top 20 contributor to the Linux kernel. A number of operating system vendors have stated they will support the 64-bit ARM ecosystem, including Canonical, Red Hat and SUSE, while virtualization will be enabled through KVM and Xen.
Operating system support is supplemented with programming language support, with Oracle and the community-driven OpenJDK porting versions of Java onto the 64-bit ARM architecture. Other popular languages that will run on AMD Opteron A-Series processors include Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby. The extremely popular GNU C compiler and the critical GNU C Library have already been ported to the 64-bit ARM architecture.
Through the combination of kernel support and development tools such as libraries, compilers and debuggers, the foundation has been set for developers to port applications to a rapidly growing ecosystem.
As AMD Opteron A-Series processors are well suited to web hosting and big data workloads, AMD is a gold sponsor of the Apache Foundation, the organisation that manages the Hadoop and HTTP Server projects. Up and down the software stack, the ecosystem is ready for the data center revolution that will take place when AMD Opteron A-Series are deployed.
Soon, AMD’s partners will start to realise what a true server-class 64-bit ARM processor can do. By using AMD’s Opteron A-Series Development Kit, developers can contribute to the fast growing software ecosystem that already includes operating systems, compilers, hypervisors and applications. Combining AMD’s rich history in designing server-class solutions with ARM’s legendary low-power architecture, the Opteron A-Series ushers in the era of personalised performance.
Introducing the industry’s only 64-bit ARM-based server SoC from AMD [AMD YouTube channel, Jan 21, 2014]
It Begins: AMD Announces Its First ARM Based Server SoC, 64-bit/8-core Opteron A1100 [AnandTech, Jan 28, 2014]
… AMD will be making a reference board available to interested parties starting in March, with server and OEM announcements to come in Q4 of this year.
It’s still too early to talk about performance or TDPs, but AMD did indicate better overall performance than its Opteron X2150 (4-core 1.9GHz Jaguar) at a comparable TDP:
AMD alluded to substantial cost savings over competing Intel solutions with support for similar memory capacities. AMD tells me we should expect a total “solution” price somewhere around 1/10th that of a competing high-end Xeon box, but it isn’t offering specifics beyond that just yet. Given the Opteron X2150 performance/TDP comparison, I’m guessing we’re looking at a similar ~$100 price point for the SoC. There’s also no word on whether or not the SoC will leverage any of AMD’s graphics IP. …
End of Update
AMD is also in a quite unique market position now as its only real competitor, Calxeda shut down its operation on December 19, 2013 and went into restructuring. The reason for that was lack of further funding by venture capitalists attributed mainly to its initial 32-bit Cortex-A15 based approach and the unwillingness of customers and software partners to port their already 64-bit x86 software back to 32-bit.
With the only remaining competitor in the 64-bit ARM server SoC race so far*, Applied Micro’s X-Gene SoC being built on a purpose built core of its own (see also my Software defined server without Microsoft: HP Moonshot [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, April 10, Dec 6, 2013] post), i.e. with only architecture license taken from ARM Holdings, the volume 64-bit ARM server SoC market starting in 2014 already belongs to AMD. I would base that prediction on the AppliedMicro’s X-Gene: 2013 Year in Review [Dec 20, 2013] post, stating that the first-generation X-Gene product is just nearing volume production, and a pilot X-Gene solution is planned only for early 2014 delivery by Dell.
* There is also Cavium which has too an ARMv8 architecture license only (obtained in August, 2012) but for this the latest information (as of Oct 30, 2013) was that: “In terms of the specific announcement of the product, we want to do it fairly close to silicon. We believe that this is a very differentiated product, and we would like to kind of keep it under the covers as long as we can. Obviously our customers have all the details of the products, and they’re working with them, but on a general basis for competitive reasons, we are kind of keeping this a little bit more quieter than we normally do.”
Meanwhile the 64-bit x86 based SeaMicro solution has been on the market since July 30, 2010, after 3 years in development. At the time of SeaMicro acquisition by AMD (Feb 29, 2012) this already represented a quite well thought-out and engineered solution, as one can easily grasp from the information included below:
1. IOVT: I/O-Virtualization Technology
2. TIO: Turn It Off
3. Freedom™ Supercomputer Fabric: 3D torus network fabric
– 8 x 8 x 8 Fabric nodes
– Diameter (max hop) 4 + 4 + 4 = 12
– Theor. cross section bandwidth = 2 (periodic) x 8 x 8 (section) x 2(bidir) x 2.0Gbs/link = 512Gb/s
– Compute, storage, mgmt cards are plugged into the network fabric
– Support for hot plugged compute cards
The first three—IOVT, TIO, and the Freedom™ Supercomputer Fabric—live in SeaMicro’s Freedom™ ASIC. Freedom™ ASICs are paired with each CPU and with DRAM, forming the foundational building block of a SeaMicro system.
4. DCAT: Dynamic Computation-Allocation Technology™
– CPU management and load balancing
– Dynamic workload allocation to specific CPUs on the basis of power-usage metrics
– Users can create pools of compute for a given application
– Compute resources can be dynamically added to the pool based on predefined utilization thresholds
The DCAT technology resides in the SeaMicro system software and custom-designed FPGAs/NPUs, which control and direct the I/O traffic.
More information:
– SeaMicro SM10000-64 Server [SeaMicro presentation on Hot Chips 23, Aug 19, 2011] for slides in PDF format while the presentation itself is the first one in the following recorded video (just the first 20 minutes + 7 minutes of—quite valuable—Q&A following that):
Session 7, Hot Chips 23 (2011), Friday, August 19, 2011. SeaMicro SM10000-64 Server: Building Data Center Servers Using “Cell Phone” Chips Ashutosh Dhodapkar, Gary Lauterbach, Sean Lie, Dhiraj Mallick, Jim Bauman, Sundar Kanthadai, Toru Kuzuhara, Gene Shen, Min Xu, and Chris Zhang, SeaMicro Poulson: An 8-Core, 32nm, Next-Generation Intel Itanium Processor Stephen Undy, Intel T4: A Highly Threaded Server-on-a-Chip with Native Support for Heterogenous Computing Robert Golla and Paul Jordan, Oracle
– SeaMicro Technology Overview [Anil Rao from SeaMicro, January 2012]
– System Overview for the SM10000 Family [Anil Rao from SeaMicro, January 2012]
Note that the above is just for the 1st generation as after the AMD acquisition (Feb 29, 2012) a second generation solution came out with the SM15000 enclosure (Sept 10, 2012 with more info in the details section later), and certainly there will be a 3d generation solution with the integrated into the each of x86 and 64-bit ARM based SoCs coming in 2014.
With the “only production ready, production tested supercompute fabric” (as was touted by Rory Read, CEO of AMD more than a year ago), the SeaMicro Freedom™ now will be integrated into the upcoming 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57 based “Seattle” chips from AMD, sampling in the first quarter of 2014. Consequently I would argue that even the high-end market will be captured by the company. Moreover, I think this will not be only in the SoC realm but in enclosures space as well (although that 3d type of enclosure is still to come), to detriment of HP’s highly marketed Moonshot and CloudSystem initiatives.
Then here are two recent quotes from the top executive duo of AMD showing the importance of their upcoming solution as they view it themselves:
Rory Read – AMD’s President and CEO [Oct 17, 2013]:
In the server market, the industry is at the initial stages of a multiyear transition that will fundamentally change the competitive dynamic. Cloud providers are placing a growing importance on how they get better performance from their datacenters while also reducing the physical footprint and power consumption of their server solution.
Lisa Su – AMD’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Business Units [Oct 17, 2013]:
We are fully top to bottom in 28 nanometer now across all of our products, and we are transitioning to both 20 nanometer and to FinFETs over the next couple of quarters in terms of designs. … [Regarding] the SeaMicro business, we are very pleased with the pipeline that we have there. Verizon was the first major datacenter win that we can talk about publicly. We have been working that relationship for the last two years. …
… We’re very excited about the server space. It’s a very good market. It’s a market where there is a lot of innovation and change. In terms of 64-bit ARM, you will see us sampling that product in the first quarter of 2014. That development is on schedule and we’re excited about that. All of the customer discussions have been very positive and then we will combine both the [?x86 and the?]64-bit ARM chip with our SeaMicro servers that will have full solution as well. You will see SeaMicro plus ARM in 2014.
So I think we view this combination of IP as really beneficial to accelerating the dense server market both on the chip side and then also on the solution side with the customer set.
AMD SeaMicro has been extensively working with key platform software vendors, especially in the open source space:
The current state of that collaboration is reflected in the corresponding numbered sections coming after the detailed discussion (given below before the numbered sections):
- Verizon (as its first big name cloud customer, actually not using OpenStack)
- OpenStack (inc. Rackspace, excl. Red Hat)
- Red Hat
- Ubuntu
- Big Data, Hadoop
So let’s take a detailed look at the major topic:
AMD in the Demo Theater [OpenStack Foundation YouTube channel, May 8, 2013]
Note that the OpenStack Quantum networking project was renamed Neutron after April, 2013. Details on the OpenStack effort will be provided later in the post.
Rory Read – AMD President and CEO [Oct 30, 2012]:
That SeaMicro Freedom™ fabric is ultimately very-very important. It is the only production ready, production tested supercompute fabric on the planet.
Lisa Su – AMD Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Business Units [Oct 30, 2012]:
The biggest change in the datacenter is that there is no one size fits all. So we will offer ARM-based CPUs with our fabric. We will offer x86-based CPUs with our fabric. And we will also look at opportunities where we can merge the CPU technology together with graphics compute in an APU form-factor that will be very-very good for specific workloads in servers as well. So AMD will be the only company that’s able to offer the full range of compute horsepower with the right workloads in the datacenter.
AMD makes ARM Cortex-A57 64bit Server Processor [Charbax YouTube channel, Oct 30, 2012]
From AMD Changes Compute Landscape as the First to Bridge Both x86 and ARM Processors for the Data Center [press release, Oct 29, 2012]
This strategic partnership with ARM represents the next phase of AMD’s strategy to drive ambidextrous solutions in emerging mega data center solutions. In March, AMD announced the acquisition of SeaMicro, the leader in high-density, energy-efficient servers. With this announcement, AMD will integrate the AMD SeaMicro Freedom fabric across its leadership AMD Opteron x86- and ARM technology-based processors that will enable hundreds, or even thousands of processor clusters to be linked together to provide the most energy-efficient solutions.
AMD ARM Oct 29, 2012 Full length presentation [Manny Janny YouTube channel, Oct 30, 2012]
Rory Read – AMD President and CEO: [3:27] That SeaMicro Freedom™ fabric is ultimately very-very important in this announcement. It is the only production ready, production tested supercompute fabric on the planet. [3:41]
Lisa Su – Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Business Units: [13:09] The biggest change in the datacenter is that there is no one size fits all. So we will offer ARM-based CPUs with our fabric. We will offer x86-based CPUs with our fabric. And we will also look at opportunities where we can merge the CPU technology together with graphics compute in an APU form-factor that will be very-very good for specific workloads in servers as well. So AMD will be the only company that’s able to offer the full range of compute horsepower with the right workloads in the datacenter [13:41]
From AMD to Acquire SeaMicro: Accelerates Disruptive Server Strategy [press release, Feb 29, 2012]
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SeaMicro, a pioneer in energy-efficient, high-bandwidth microservers, for approximately $334 million, of which approximately $281 million will be paid in cash. Through the acquisition of SeaMicro, AMD will be accelerating its strategy to deliver disruptive server technology to its OEM customers serving cloud-centric data centers. With SeaMicro’s fabric technology and system-level design capabilities, AMD will be uniquely positioned to offer industry-leading server building blocks tuned for the fastest-growing workloads such as dynamic web content, social networking, search and video. …
… “Cloud computing has brought a sea change to the data center–dramatically altering the economics of compute by changing the workload and optimal characteristics of a server,” said Andrew Feldman, SeaMicro CEO, who will become general manager of AMD’s newly created Data Center Server Solutions business. “SeaMicro was founded to dramatically reduce the power consumed by servers, while increasing compute density and bandwidth. By becoming a part of AMD, we will have access to new markets, resources, technology, and scale that will provide us with the opportunity to work tightly with our OEM partners as we fundamentally change the server market.”
ARM TechCon 2012 SoC Partner Panel: Introducing the ARM Cortex-A50 Series [ARMflix YouTube channel, recorded on Oct 30, published on Nov 13, 2012]
** Note that nearly 14 months later, on Dec 19, 2013 Calxeda ran out of its ~$100M venture capital accumulated earlier. As the company was not able to secure further funding it shut down its operation by dismissing most of its employees (except 12 workers serving existing customers) and went into “restructuring” with just putting on their company website: “We will update you as we conclude our restructuring process”. This is despite of the kind of pioneering role the company had, especially with HP’s Moonshot and CloudSystem initiatives, and the relatively short term promise of delivering its server cartridge to HP’s next-gen Moonshot enclosure as was well reflected in my Software defined server without Microsoft: HP Moonshot [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, April 10, Dec 6, 2013] post. The major problem was that “it tried to get to market with 32-bit chip technology, at a time most x86 servers boast 64-bit technology … [and as] customers and software companies weren’t willing to port their software to run on 32-bit systems” – reported the Wall Street Journal. I would also say that AMD’s “only production ready, production tested supercompute fabric on the planet” (see AMD Rory’s statement already given above) with its upcoming “Seattle” 64-bit ARM SoC to be on track for delivery in H2 CY14 was another major reason for the lack of additional venture funds to Calxeda.
AMD’s 64-bit “Seattle” ARM processor brings best of breed hardware and software to the data center [AMD Business blog, Dec 12, 2013]
Going into 2014, the server market is set to face the biggest disruption since AMD launched the 64-bit x86 AMD Opteron™ processor – the first 64-bit x86 processor – in 2003. Processors based on ARM’s 64-bit ARMv8 architecture will start to appear next year, and just like the x86 AMD Opteron™ processors a decade ago, AMD’s ARM 64-bit processors will offer enterprises a viable option for efficiently handling vast amounts of data.
From: AMD Unveils Server Strategy and Roadmap [press release June 18, 2013]
Note that AMD Details Embedded Product Roadmap [press release, Sept, 9, 2013] as well in which there is also a:
|
The AMD Opteron processor came at a time when x86 processors were seen by many as silicon that could only power personal computers, with specialized processors running on architectures such as SPARC™ and Power™ being the ones that were handling server workloads. Back in 2003, the AMD Opteron processor did more than just offer another option, it made the x86 architecture a viable contender in the server market – showing that processors based on x86 architectures could compete effectively against established architectures. Thanks in no small part to the AMD Opteron processor, today the majority of servers shipped run x86 processors.
In 2014, AMD will once again disrupt the datacenter as x86 processors will be joined by those that make use of ARM’s 64-bit architecture. Codenamed “Seattle,” AMD’s first ARM-based Opteron processor will use the ARMv8 architecture, offering low-power processing in the fast growing dense server space.
To appreciate what the first ARM-based AMD Opteron processor is designed to deliver to those wanting to deploy racks of servers, it is important to realize that the ARMv8 architecture offers a clean slate on which to build both hardware and software.
ARM’s ARMv8 architecture is much more than a doubling of word-length from previous generation ARMv7 architecture: it has been designed from the ground-up to provide higher performance while retaining the trademark power efficiencies that everyone has come to expect from the ARM architecture. AMD’s “Seattle” processors will have either four or eight cores, packing server-grade features such as support for up to 128 GB of ECC memory, and integrated 10Gb/sec of Ethernet connectivity with AMD’s revolutionary Freedom™ fabric, designed to cater for dense compute systems.
|
From: AMD Delivers a New Generation of AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon “Ivy Bridge” Processors in its New SeaMicro SM15000 Micro Server Chassis [press release, Sept 10, 2012]
AMD off-chip interconnect fabric IP designed to enable significantly lower TCO • Links hundreds –> thousands of SoC modules • Shares hundreds of TBs storage and virtualizes I/O • 160Gbps Ethernet Uplink • Instruction Set:
Freedom™ ASIC 2.0 – Industry’s only Second Generation Fabric TechnologyThe Freedom™ ASIC is the building block of SeaMicro Fabric Compute Systems, enabling interconnection of energy efficient servers in a 3-dimensional Torus Fabric. The second generation Freedom ASIC includes high performance network interfaces, storage connectivity, and advanced server management, thereby eliminating the need for multiple sets of network adapters, HBAs, cables, and switches. This results in unmatched density, energy efficiency, and lowered TCO. Some of the key technologies in ASIC 2.0 include:
Unified Management – Easily Provision and Manage Servers, Network, and Storage Resources on DemandThe SeaMicro SM15000 implements a rich management system providing unified management of servers, network, and storage. Resources can be rapidly deployed, managed, and repurposed remotely, enabling lights-off data center operations. It offers a broad set of management API including an industry standard CLI, SNMP, IPMI, syslog, and XEN APIs, allowing customers to seamlessly integrate the SeaMicro SM15000 into existing data center management environments.Redundancy and Availability – Engineered from the Ground Up to Eliminate Single Points of FailureThe SeaMicro SM15000 is designed for the most demanding environments, helping to ensure availability of compute, network, storage, and system management. At the heart of the system is the Freedom Fabric, interconnecting all resources in the system, with the ability to sustain multiple points of failure and allow live component servicing. All active components in the system can be configured redundant and are hot-swappable, including server cards, network uplink cards, storage controller cards, system management cards, disks, fan trays, and power supplies. Key resources can also be configured to be protected in the following ways:Compute – A shared spare server can be configured to act as a standby spare for multiple primary servers. In the event of failure, the primary server’s personality, including MAC address, assigned disks, and boot configuration can be migrated to the standby spare and brought back online – ensuring fast restoration of services from a remote location.Network – The highly available fabric ensures network connectivity is maintained between servers and storage in the event of path failure. For uplink high-availability, the system can be configured with multiple uplink modules and port channels providing redundant active/active interfaces.Storage – The highly available fabric ensures that servers can access fabric storage in the event of failures. The fabric storage system also provides an efficient, high utilization optional hardware RAID to protect data in case of disk failure.
|
We realize that having an impressive set of hardware features in the first ARM-based Opteron processors is half of the story, and that is why we are hard at work on making sure the software ecosystem will support our cutting edge hardware. Work on software enablement has been happening throughout the stack – from the UEFI, to the operating system and onto application frameworks and developer tools such as compilers and debuggers. This ensures that the software will be ready for ARM-based servers.
|
AMD developing Linux on ARM at Linaro Connect 2013 [Charbax YouTube channel, March 11, 2013] [Recorded at Linaro Connect Asia 2013, March 4-8, 2013] Dr. Leendert van Doorn, Corporate Fellow at AMD, talks about what AMD does with Linaro to optimize Linux on ARM. He talks about the expectations that AMD has for results to come from Linaro in terms of achieving a better and more fully featured Linux world on ARM, especially for the ARM Cortex-A57 ARMv8 processor that AMD has announced for the server market.
|
AMD’s participation in software projects is well documented, being a gold member of the Linux Foundation, the organization that manages the development of the Linux kernel, and a group member of Linaro. AMD is a gold sponsor of the Apache Foundation, which oversees projects such as Hadoop, HTTP Server and Samba among many others, and the company’s engineers are contributors to the OpenJDK project. This is just a small selection of the work AMD is taking part in, and these projects in particular highlight how important AMD feels that open source software is to the data center, and in particular micro servers, that make use of ARM-based processors.
And running ARM-based processors doesn’t mean giving up on the flexibility of virtual machines, with KVM already ported to the ARMv8 architecture. Another popular hypervisor, Xen, is already available for 32-bit ARM architectures with a 64-bit port planned, ensuring that two popular and highly capable hypervisors will be available.
The Linux kernel has supported 64-bit ARMv8 architecture since Linux 3.7, and a number of popular Linux distributions have already signaled their support for the architecture including Canonical’s Ubuntu and the Red Hat sponsored Fedora distribution. In fact there is a downloadable, bootable Ubuntu distribution available in anticipation for ARMv8-based processors.
It’s not just operating systems and applications that are available. Developer tools such as the extremely popular open source GCC compiler and the vital GNU C Library (Glibc) have already been ported to the ARMv8 architecture and are available for download. With GCC and Glibc good to go, a solid foundation for developers to target the ARMv8 architecture is forming.
All of this work on both hardware and software should shed some light on just how big ARM processors will be in the data center. AMD, an established enterprise semiconductor vendor, is uniquely placed to ship both 64-bit ARMv8 and 64-bit x86 processors that enable “mixed rack” environments. And thanks to the army of software engineers at AMD, as well as others around the world who have committed significant time and effort, the software ecosystem will be there to support these revolutionary processors. 2014 is set to see the biggest disruption in the data center in over a decade, with AMD again at the center of it.
Lawrence Latif is a blogger and technical communications representative at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only. Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.
End of AMD’s 64-bit “Seattle” ARM processor brings best of breed hardware and software to the data center [AMD Business blog, Dec 12, 2013]
AMD at ARM Techcon 2013 [Charbax YouTube channel, recorded at the ARM Techcon 2013 (Oct 29-31), published on Dec 25, 2013]
From: Advanced Micro Devices’ CEO Discusses Q3 2013 Results – Earnings Call Transcript [Seeking Alpha, Oct 17, 2013]
Rory Read – President and CEO:
The three step turnaround plan we outlined a year ago to restructure, accelerate and ultimately transform AMD is clearly paying off. We completed the restructuring phase of our plan, maintaining cash at optimal levels and beating our $450 million quarterly operating expense goal in the third quarter. We are now in the second phase of our strategy – accelerating our performance by consistently executing our product roadmap while growing our new businesses to drive a return to profitability and positive free cash flow.
We are also laying the foundation for the third phase of our strategy, as we transform AMD to compete across a set of high growth markets. Our progress on this front was evident in the third quarter as we generated more than 30% of our revenue from our semi-custom and embedded businesses. Over the next two years we will continue to transform AMD to expand beyond a slowing, transitioning PC industry, as we create a more diverse company and look to generate approximately 50% of our revenue from these new high growth markets.
We have strategically targeted that semi-custom, ultra-low power client, embedded, dense server and the professional graphics market where we can offer differentiated products that leverage our APU and graphics IP. Our strategy allows us to continue to invest in the product that will drive growth, while effectively managing operating expenses. …
… Several of our growth businesses passed key milestones in the third quarter. Most significantly, our semi-custom business ramped in the quarter. We successfully shipped millions of units to support Sony and Microsoft, as they prepared to launch their next-generation game consoles. Our game console wins are generating a lot of customer interest, as we demonstrate our ability to design and reliably ramp production on two of the most complex SOCs ever built for high-volume consumer devices. We have several strong semi-custom design opportunities moving through the pipeline as customers look to tap into AMD’s IP, design and integration expertise to create differentiated winning solutions. … it’s our intention to win and mix in a whole set semicustom offerings as we build out this exciting and important new business.
We made good progress in our embedded business in the third quarter. We expanded our current embedded SOC offering and detailed our plans to be the only company to offer both 64-bit x86 and ARM solutions beginning in 2014. We have developed a strong embedded design pipeline which, we expect, will drive further growth for this business across 2014.
We also continue to make steady progress in another of our growth businesses in the third quarter, as we delivered our fifth consecutive quarter of revenue and share growth in the professional graphics area. We believe we can continue to gain share in this lucrative part of the GPU market, based on our product portfolio, design wins [in place] [ph] and enhanced channel programs.
In the server market, the industry is at the initial stages of a multiyear transition that will fundamentally change the competitive dynamic. Cloud providers are placing a growing importance on how they get better performance from their datacenters while also reducing the physical footprint and power consumption of their server solution.
This will become the defining metric of this industry and will be a key growth driver for the market and the new AMD. AMD is leading this emerging trend in the server market and we are committed to defining a leadership position.
Earlier this quarter, we had a significant public endorsement of our dense server strategy as Verizon announced a high performance public cloud that uses our SeaMicro technology and Opteron processor. We remain on track to introduce new, low-power X86 and 64-bit ARM processors next year and we believe we will offer the industry leading ARM-based servers. …
… Two years ago we were 90% to 95% of our business centered over PCs and we’ve launched the clear strategy to diversify our portfolio taking our IT — leadership IT and Graphics and CPU and taking it into adjacent segment where there is high growth for three, five, seven years and stickier opportunities.
We see that as an opportunity to drive 50% or more of our business over that time horizon. And if you look at the results in the third quarter, we are already seeing the benefits of that opportunity with over 30% of our revenue now coming from semi-custom and our embedded businesses.
We see it is an important business in PC, but its time is changing and the go-go era is over. We need to move and attack the new opportunities where the market is going, and that’s what we are doing.
Lisa Su – Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Business Units:
We are fully top to bottom in 28 nanometer now across all of our products, and we are transitioning to both 20 nanometer and to FinFETs over the next couple of quarters in terms of designs. We will do 20 nanometer first, and then we will go to FinFETs. …
… game console semicustom product is a long life cycle product over five to seven years. Certainly when we look at cost reduction opportunities, one of the important ones is to move technology nodes. So we will in this timeframe certainly move from 28 nanometer to 20 nanometer and now the reason to do that is both for pure die cost savings as well as all the power savings that our customer benefits from. … so expect the cost to go down on a unit basis as we move to 20.
[Regarding] the SeaMicro business, we are very pleased with the pipeline that we have there. Verizon was the first major datacenter win that we can talk about publicly. We have been working that relationship for the last two years. So it’s actually nice to be able to talk about it. We do see it as a major opportunity that will give us revenue potential in 2014. And we continue to see a strong pipeline of opportunities with SeaMicro as more of the datacenter guys are looking at how to incorporate these dense servers into their new cloud infrastructures. …
… As I said the Verizon engagement has lasted over the past two years. So some of the initial deployments were with the Intel processors but we do have significant deployments with AMD Opteron as well. We do see the percentage of Opteron processors increasing because that’s what we’d like to do. …
We’re very excited about the server space. It’s a very good market. It’s a market where there is a lot of innovation and change. In terms of 64-bit ARM, you will see us sampling that product in the first quarter of 2014. That development is on schedule and we’re excited about that. All of the customer discussions have been very positive and then we will combine both the [?x86 and the?]64-bit ARM chip with our SeaMicro servers that will have full solution as well. You will see SeaMicro plus ARM in 2014.
So I think we view this combination of IP as really beneficial to accelerating the dense server market both on the chip side and then also on the solution side with the customer set.
Amazon’s James Hamilton: Why Innovation Wins [AMD SeaMicro YouTube channel, Nov 12, 2012] video which was included into the Headline News and Events section of Volume 1, December 2012 of The Wave Newsletter from AMD SeaMicro with the following intro:
James Hamilton, VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon called AMD’s co-announcement with ARM to develop 64-bit ARM technology-based processors “A great day for the server ecosystem.” Learn why and hear what James had to say about what this means for customers and the broader server industry.
AMD Changes Compute Landscape as the First to Bridge Both x86 and ARM Processors for the Data Center [press release, Oct 29, 2012]
Company to Complement x86-based Offerings with New Processors Based on ARM 64-bit Technology, Starting with Server Market
SUNNYVALE, Calif. —10/29/2012
In a bold strategic move, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced that it will design 64-bit ARM® technology-based processors in addition to its x86 processors for multiple markets, starting with cloud and data center servers. AMD’s first ARM technology-based processor will be a highly-integrated, 64-bit multicore System-on-a-Chip (SoC) optimized for the dense, energy-efficient servers that now dominate the largest data centers and power the modern computing experience. The first ARM technology-based AMD Opteron™ processor is targeted for production in 2014 and will integrate the AMD SeaMicro Freedom™ supercompute fabric, the industry’s premier high-performance fabric.
AMD’s new design initiative addresses the growing demand to deliver better performance-per-watt for dense cloud computing solutions. Just as AMD introduced the industry’s first mainstream 64-bit x86 server solution with the AMD Opteron processor in 2003, AMD will be the only processor provider bridging the x86 and 64-bit ARM ecosystems to enable new levels of flexibility and drive optimal performance and power-efficiency for a range of enterprise workloads.
“AMD led the data center transition to mainstream 64-bit computing with AMD64, and with our ambidextrous strategy we will again lead the next major industry inflection point by driving the widespread adoption of energy-efficient 64-bit server processors based on both the x86 and ARM architectures,” said Rory Read, president and chief executive officer, AMD. “Through our collaboration with ARM, we are building on AMD’s rich IP portfolio, including our deep 64-bit processor knowledge and industry-leading AMD SeaMicro Freedom supercompute fabric, to offer the most flexible and complete processing solutions for the modern data center.”
“The industry needs to continuously innovate across markets to meet customers’ ever-increasing demands, and ARM and our partners are enabling increasingly energy-efficient computing solutions to address these needs,” said Warren East, chief executive officer, ARM. “By collaborating with ARM, AMD is able to leverage its extraordinary portfolio of IP, including its AMD Freedom supercompute fabric, with ARM 64-bit processor cores to build solutions that deliver on this demand and transform the industry.”
The explosion of the data center has brought with it an opportunity to optimize compute with vastly different solutions. AMD is providing a compute ecosystem filled with choice, offering solutions based on AMD Opteron x86 CPUs, new server-class Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that leverage Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA), and new 64-bit ARM-based solutions.
This strategic partnership with ARM represents the next phase of AMD’s strategy to drive ambidextrous solutions in emerging mega data center solutions. In March, AMD announced the acquisition of SeaMicro, the leader in high-density, energy-efficient servers. With this announcement, AMD will integrate the AMD SeaMicro Freedom fabric across its leadership AMD Opteron x86- and ARM technology-based processors that will enable hundreds, or even thousands of processor clusters to be linked together to provide the most energy-efficient solutions.
“Over the past decade the computer industry has coalesced around two high-volume processor architectures – x86 for personal computers and servers, and ARM for mobile devices,” observed Nathan Brookwood, research fellow at Insight 64. “Over the next decade, the purveyors of these established architectures will each seek to extend their presence into market segments dominated by the other. The path on which AMD has now embarked will allow it to offer products based on both x86 and ARM architectures, a capability no other semiconductor manufacturer can likely match.”
At an event hosted by AMD in San Francisco, representatives from Amazon, Dell, Facebook and Red Hat participated in a panel discussion on opportunities created by ARM server solutions from AMD. A replay of the event can be found here as of 5 p.m. PDT, Oct. 29.
Supporting Resources
- AMD bridges the x86 and ARM ecosystems for the data center announcement press resources
- Follow AMD on Twitter at @AMD
- Follow the AMD and ARM announcement on Twitter at #AMDARM
- Like AMD on Facebook.
AMD SeaMicro SM15000 with Freedom Fabric Storage [AMD YouTube channel, Sept 11, 2012]
AMD Extends Leadership in Data Center Innovation – First to Optimize the Micro Server for Big Data [press release, Sept 10, 2012]
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000™ Server Delivers Hyper-efficient Compute for Big Data and Cloud Supporting Five Petabytes of Storage; Available with AMD Opteron™ and Intel® Xeon® “Ivy Bridge”/”Sandy Bridge” Processors
SUNNYVALE, Calif. —9/10/2012
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the SeaMicro SM15000™ server, another computing innovation from its Data Center Server Solutions (DCSS) group that cements its position as the technology leader in the micro server category. AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server revolutionizes computing with the invention of Freedom™ Fabric Storage, which extends its Freedom™ Fabric beyond the SeaMicro chassis to connect directly to massive disk arrays, enabling a single ten rack unit system to support more than five petabytes of low-cost, easy-to-install storage. The SM15000 server combines industry-leading density, power efficiency and bandwidth with a new generation of storage technology, enabling a single rack to contain thousands of cores, and petabytes of storage – ideal for big data applications like Apache™ Hadoop™ and Cassandra™ for public and private cloud deployments.
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 system is available today and currently supports the Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1260L (“Sandy Bridge”). In November, it will support the next generation of AMD Opteron™ processors featuring the “Piledriver” core, as well as the newly announced Intel Xeon Processor E3-1265Lv2 (“Ivy Bridge”). In addition to these latest offerings, the AMD SeaMicro fabric technology continues to deliver a key building block for AMD’s server partners to build extremely energy efficient micro servers for their customers.
“Historically, server architecture has focused on the processor, while storage and networking were afterthoughts. But increasingly, cloud and big data customers have sought a solution in which storage, networking and compute are in balance and are shared. In a legacy server, storage is a captive resource for an individual processor, limiting the ability of disks to be shared across multiple processors, causing massive data replication and necessitating the purchase of expensive storage area networking or network attached storage equipment,” said Andrew Feldman, corporate vice president and general manager of the Data Center Server Solutions group at AMD. “AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server enables companies, for the first time, to share massive amounts of storage across hundreds of efficient computing nodes in an exceptionally dense form factor. We believe that this will transform the data center compute and storage landscape.”
AMD’s SeaMicro products transformed the data center with the first micro server to combine compute, storage and fabric-based networking in a single chassis. Micro servers deliver massive efficiencies in power, space and bandwidth, and AMD set the bar with its SeaMicro product that uses one-quarter the power, takes one-sixth the space and delivers 16 times the bandwidth of the best-in-class alternatives. With the SeaMicro SM15000 server, the innovative trajectory broadens the benefits of the micro server to storage, solving the most pressing needs of the data center.
Combining the Freedom™ Supercompute Fabric technology with the pioneering Freedom™ Fabric Storage technology enables data centers to provide more than five petabytes of storage with 64 servers in a single ten rack unit (17.5 inch tall) SM15000 system. Once these disks are interconnected with the fabric, they are seen and shared by all servers in the system. This approach provides the benefits typically provided by expensive and complex solutions such as network-attached storage and storage area networking with the simplicity and low cost of direct attached storage
“AMD’s SeaMicro technology is leading innovation in micro servers and data center compute,” said Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst of ZK Research. “The team invented the micro server category, was the first to bring small-core servers and large-core servers to market in the same system, the first to market with a second-generation fabric, and the first to build a fabric that supports multiple processors and instruction sets. It is not surprising that they have extended the technology to storage. The bringing together of compute and petabytes of storage demonstrates the flexibility of the Freedom Fabric. They are blurring the boundaries of compute, storage and networking, and they have once again challenged the industry with bold innovation.”
Leaders Across the Big Data Community Agree
Dr. Amr Awadallah, CTO and Founder at Cloudera, the category leader that is setting the standard for Hadoop in the enterprise, observes: “The big data community is hungry for innovations that simplify the infrastructure for big data analysis while reducing hardware costs. As we hear from our vast big data partner ecosystem and from customers using CDH and
Cloudera Enterprise, companies that are seeking to gain insights across all their data want their hardware vendors to provide low cost, high density, standards-based compute that connects to massive arrays of low cost storage. AMD’s SeaMicro delivers on this promise.”
Eric Baldeschwieler, co-founder and CTO of Hortonworks and a pioneer in Hadoop technology, notes: “Petabytes of low cost storage, hyper-dense energy-efficient compute, connected with a supercompute-style fabric is an architecture particularly well suited for big data analytics and Hortonworks Data Platform. At Hortonworks, we seek to make Apache Hadoop easier to use, consume and deploy, which is in line with AMD’s goal to revolutionize and commoditize the storage and processing of big data. We are pleased to see leaders in the hardware community inventing technology that extends the reach of big data analysis.”
Matt Pfeil, co-founder and VP of customer solutions at DataStax, the leader in real-time mission-critical big data platforms, agrees: “At DataStax, we believe that extraordinary databases, such as Cassandra, running mission-critical applications, can be used by nearly every enterprise. To see AMD’s DCSS group bringing together efficient compute and petabytes of storage over a unified fabric in a single low-cost, energy-efficient solution is enormously exciting. The combination of the SM15000 server and best-in-class database, Cassandra, offer a powerful threat to the incumbent makers of both databases and the expensive hardware on which they reside.”
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000™ Technology
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server is built around the industry’s first and only second-generation fabric, the Freedom Fabric. It is the only fabric technology designed and optimized to work with Central Processor Units (CPUs) that have both large and small cores, as well as x86 and non-x86 CPUs. Freedom Fabric contains innovative technology including:
SeaMicro IOVT (Input/Output Virtualization Technology), which eliminates all but three components from the SeaMicro motherboard – CPU, DRAM, and the ASIC itself – thereby shrinking the motherboard, while reducing power, cost and space;
SeaMicro TIO™ (Turn It Off) technology, which enables further power optimization on the mini motherboard by turning off unneeded CPU and chipset functions. Together, SeaMicro IOVT and TIO technology produce the smallest and most power efficient motherboards available;
Freedom Supercompute Fabric creates a 1.28 terabits-per-second fabric that ties together 64 of the power-optimized mini-motherboards at low latency and low power with massive bandwidth;
SeaMicro Freedom Fabric Storage, which allows the Freedom Supercompute Fabric to extend out of the chassis and across the data center, linking not just components inside the chassis, but those outside as well.
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 Server Details
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server will be available with 64 compute cards, each holding a new custom-designed single-socket octal core 2.0/2.3/2.8 GHz AMD Opteron processor based on the “Piledriver” core, for a total of 512 heavy-weight cores per system or 2,048 cores per rack. Each AMD Opteron processor can support 64 gigabytes of DRAM, enabling a single system to handle more than four terabytes of DRAM and over 16 terabytes of DRAM per rack. AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 system will also be available with a quad core 2.5 GHz Intel Xeon Processor E3-1265Lv2 (“Ivy Bridge”) for 256 2.5 GHz cores in a ten rack unit system or 1,024 cores in a standard rack. Each processor supports up to 32 gigabytes of memory so a single SeaMicro SM15000 system can deliver up to two terabytes of DRAM and up to eight terabytes of DRAM per rack.
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server also contains 16 fabric extender slots, each of which can connect to three different Freedom Fabric Storage arrays with different capacities:
FS 5084-L is an ultra-dense capacity-optimized storage system. It supports up to 84 SAS/SATA 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch drives in 5 rack units for up to 336 terabytes of capacity per-array and over five petabytes per SeaMicro SM15000 system;
FS 2012-L is a capacity-optimized storage system. It supports up to 12 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch drives in 2 rack units for up to 48 terabytes of capacity per-array or up to 768 terabytes of capacity per SeaMicro SM15000 system;
FS 2024-S is a performance-optimized storage system. It supports up to 24 2.5 inch drives in 2 rack units for up to 24 terabytes of capacity per-array or up to 384 terabytes of capacity per SM15000 system.
In summary, AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 system:
- Stands ten rack units or 17.5 inches tall;
- Contains 64 slots for compute cards for AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon processors;
- Provides up to ten gigabits per-second of bandwidth to each CPU;
- Connects up to 1,408 solid state or hard drives with Freedom Fabric Storage
- Delivers up to 16 10 GbE uplinks or up to 64 1GbE uplinks;
- Runs standard off-the-shelf operating systems including Windows®, Linux, Red Hat and VMware and Citrix XenServer hypervisors.
Availability
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server with Intel’s Xeon Processor E3-1260L “Sandy Bridge” is now generally available in the U.S and in select international regions. Configurations based on AMD Opteron processors and Intel Xeon Processor E3-1265Lv2 with the “Ivy Bridge” microarchitecture will be available in November, 2012. More information on AMD’s revolutionary SeaMicro family of servers can be found at www.seamicro.com/products.
1. Verizon
Verizon Cloud on AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 [AMD YouTube channel, Oct 7, 2013]
Verizon Cloud Compute and Verizon Cloud Storage [The Wave Newsletter from AMD, December 2013]
With enterprise adoption of public cloud services at 10 percent1, Verizon identified a need for a cloud service that was secure, reliable and highly flexible with enterprise-grade performance guarantees. Large, global enterprises want to take advantage of the agility, flexibility and compelling economics of the public cloud, but the performance and reliability are not up to par for their needs. To fulfill this need, Verizon spent over two years identifying and developing software using AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000, the industry’s first and only programmable server hardware. The new services redefine the benchmarks for public cloud computing and storage performance and security.
Designed specifically for enterprise customers, the new services allow companies to use the same policies and procedures across the enterprise network and the public cloud. The close collaboration has resulted in cloud computing services with unheralded performance level guarantees that are offered with competitive pricing. The new cloud services are backed by the power of Verizon, including global data centers, global IP network and enterprise-grade managed security services. The performance and security innovations are expected to accelerate public cloud adoption by the enterprise for their mission critical applications. more >
Verizon Selects AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 for Enterprise Class Services: Verizon Cloud Compute and Verizon Cloud Storage [AMD-Seamicro press release, Oct 7, 2013]
Verizon and AMD create technology that transforms the public cloud, delivering the industry’s most advanced cloud capabilities
SUNNYVALE, Calif. —10/7/2013
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that Verizon is deploying SeaMicro SM15000™ servers for its new global cloud platform and cloud-based object storage service, whose public beta was recently announced. AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server links hundreds of cores together in a single system using a fraction of the power and space of traditional servers. To enable Verizon’s next generation solution, technology has been taken one step further: Verizon and AMD co-developed additional hardware and software technology on the SM15000 server that provides unprecedented performance and best-in-class reliability backed by enterprise-level service level agreements (SLAs). The combination of these technologies co-developed by AMD and Verizon ushers in a new era of enterprise-class cloud services by enabling a higher level of control over security and performance SLAs. With this technology underpinning the new Verizon Cloud Compute and Verizon Cloud Storage, enterprise customers can for the first time confidently deploy mission-critical systems in the public cloud.
“We reinvented the public cloud from the ground up to specifically address the needs of our enterprise clients,” said John Considine, chief technology officer at Verizon Terremark. “We wanted to give them back control of their infrastructure – providing the speed and flexibility of a generic public cloud with the performance and security they expect from an enterprise-grade cloud. Our collaboration with AMD enabled us to develop revolutionary technology, and it represents the backbone of our future plans.”
As part of its joint development, AMD and Verizon co-developed hardware and software to reserve, allocate and guarantee application SLAs. AMD’s SeaMicro Freedom™ fabric-based SM15000 server delivers the industry’s first and only programmable server hardware that includes a high bandwidth, low latency programmable interconnect fabric, and programmable data and control plane for both network and storage traffic. Leveraging AMD’s programmable server hardware, Verizon developed unique software to guarantee and deliver reliability, unheralded performance guarantees and SLAs for enterprise cloud computing services.
“Verizon has a clear vision for the future of the public cloud services—services that are more flexible, more reliable and guaranteed,” said Andrew Feldman, corporate vice president and general manager, Server, AMD. “The technology we developed turns the cloud paradigm upside down by creating a service that an enterprise can configure and control as if the equipment were in its own data center. With this innovation in cloud services, I expect enterprises to migrate their core IT services and mission critical applications to Verizon’s cloud services.”
“The rapid, reliable and scalable delivery of cloud compute and storage services is the key to competing successfully in any cloud market from infrastructure, to platform, to application; and enterprises are constantly asking for more as they alter their business models to thrive in a mobile and analytic world,” said Richard Villars, vice president, Datacenter & Cloud at IDC. “Next generation integrated IT solutions like AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 provide a flexible yet high-performance platform upon which companies like Verizon can use to build the next generation of cloud service offerings.”
Innovative Verizon Cloud Capabilities on AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 Server Industry Firsts
Verizon leveraged the SeaMicro SM15000 server’s ability to disaggregate server resources to create a cloud optimized for computing and storage services. Verizon and AMD’s SeaMicro engineers worked for over two years to create a revolutionary public cloud platform with enterprise class capabilities.
These new capabilities include:
- Virtual machine server provisioning in seconds, a fraction of the time of a legacy public cloud;
- Fine-grained server configuration options that match real life requirements, not just small, medium, large sizing, including processor speed (500 MHz to 2,000 MHz) and DRAM (.5 GB increments) options;
- Shared disks across multiple server instances versus requiring each virtual machine to have its own dedicated drive;
- Defined storage quality of service by specifying performance up to 5,000 IOPS to meet the demands of the application being deployed, compared to best-effort performance;
- Consistent network security policies and procedures across the enterprise network and the public cloud;
- Strict traffic isolation, data encryption, and data inspection with full featured firewalls that achieve Department of Defense and PCI compliance levels;
- Guaranteed network performance for every virtual machine with reserved network performance up to 500 Mbps compared to no guarantees in many other public clouds.
The public beta for Verizon Cloud will launch in the fourth quarter. Companies interested in becoming a beta customer can sign up through the Verizon Enterprise Solutions website: www.verizonenterprise.com/verizoncloud.
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 Server
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 system is the highest-density, most energy-efficient server in the market. In 10 rack units, it links 512 compute cores, 160 gigabits of I/O networking, more than five petabytes of storage with a 1.28 terabyte high-performance supercompute fabric, called Freedom™ Fabric. The SM15000 server eliminates top-of-rack switches, terminal servers, hundreds of cables and thousands of unnecessary components for a more efficient and simple operational environment.
AMD’s SeaMicro server product family currently supports the next generation AMD Opteron™ (“Piledriver”) processor, Intel® Xeon® E3-1260L (“Sandy Bridge”) and E3-1265Lv2 (“Ivy Bridge”) and Intel® Atom™ N570 processors. The SeaMicro SM15000 server also supports the Freedom Fabric Storage products, enabling a single system to connect with more than five petabytes of storage capacity in two racks. This approach delivers the benefits of expensive and complex solutions such as network attached storage (NAS) and storage area networking (SAN) with the simplicity and low cost of direct attached storage.
For more information on the Verizon Cloud implementation, please visit: www.seamicro.com/vzcloud.
About AMD
AMD (NYSE: AMD) designs and integrates technology that powers millions of intelligent devices, including personal computers, tablets, game consoles and cloud servers that define the new era of surround computing. AMD solutions enable people everywhere to realize the full potential of their favorite devices and applications to push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information, visit www.amd.com.
correction…Verizon is not using OpenStack, but they are using our hardware.
@cloud_attitude
2. OpenStack
OpenStack 101 – What Is OpenStack? [Rackspace YouTube channel, Jan 14, 2013]
OpenStack: The Open Source Cloud Operating System
- OpenStack Shared Services (identity, image, telemetry, orchestration): code-named Keystone (OpenStack Identity), code-named Glance (OpenStack Image Service), code-named Ceilometer (OpenStack Metering), code-named Heat (OpenStack Orchestration)
- Compute: code-named Nova
- Networking: the original Quantum naming had to be phased out in April, 2013 and in June, 2013 was replaced by Neutron
- Storage: code-named Cinder (OpenStack Block Storage), code-named Swift (OpenStack Object Storage)
- Projects incubated in the upcoming Icehouse release started on Nov 7, 2013 and planned for release on April 17, 2014:
- Database Service (Trove) – https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Trove
- Bare Metal (Ironic) – https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Ironic
- Queue Service (Marconi) – https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Marconi
- Data Processing (Savannah) – https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Savanna
Why OpenStack? [The Wave Newsletter from AMD, December 2013]
OpenStack continues to gain momentum in the market as more and more, larger, established technology and service companies move from evaluation to deployment. But why has OpenStack become so popular? In this issue, we discuss the business drivers behind the widespread adoption and why AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server is the industry’s best choice for a successful OpenStack deployment. If you’re considering OpenStack, learn about the options and hear winning strategies from experts featured in our most recent OpenStack webcasts. And in case you missed it, read about AMD’s exciting collaboration with Verizon enabling them to offer enterprise-caliber cloud services. more >
OpenStack the SeaMicro SM15000 – From Zero to 2,048 Cores in Less than One Hour [The Wave Newsletter from AMD, March 2013]
The SeaMicro SM15000 is optimized for OpenStack, a solution that is being adopted by both public and private cloud operators. Red 5 Studios recently deployed OpenStack on a 48 foot bus to power their new massive multiplayer online game Firefall. The SM15000 uniquely excels for object storage, providing more than 5 petabytes of direct attached storage in two data center racks. more >
State of the Stack [OpenStack Foundation YouTube channel, recorded on Nov 8 under official title “Stack Debate: Understanding OpenStack’s Future”, published on Nov 9, 2013]
The biggest issue with OpenStack project which “started without a benevolent dictator and/or architect” was mentioned there (watch from [6:40]) as a kind of: “The worst architectural decision you can make is stay with default networking for a production system because the default networking model in OpenStack is broken for use at scale”.
Then Randy Bias summarized that particular issue later in Neutron in Production: Work in Progress or Ready for Prime Time? [Cloudscaling blog, Dec 6, 2013] as:
Ultimately, it’s unclear whether all networking functions ever will be modeled behind the Neutron API with a bunch of plug-ins. That’s part of the ongoing dialogue we’re having in the community about what makes the most sense for the project’s future.
The bottom-line consensus was is that Neutron is a work in progress. Vanilla Neutron is not ready for production, so you should get a vendor if you need to move into production soon.
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 Is the First Server to Provide Bare Metal Provisioning to Scale Massive OpenStack Compute Deployments [press release, Nov 5, 2013]
Provides Foundation to Leverage OpenStack Compute for Large Networks of Virtualized and Bare Metal Servers
SUNNYVALE, Calif. and Hong Kong, OpenStack Summit —11/5/2013
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that the SeaMicro SM15000™ server supports bare metal features in OpenStack® Compute. AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server is ideally suited for massive OpenStack deployments by integrating compute, storage and networking into a 10 rack unit system. The system is built around the Freedom™ fabric, the industry’s premier supercomputing fabric for scale out data center applications. The Freedom fabric disaggregates compute, storage and network I/O to provide the most flexible, scalable and resilient data center infrastructure in the industry. This allows customers to match the compute performance, storage capacity and networking I/O to their application needs. The result is an adaptive data center where any server can be mapped to any hard disk/SSD or network I/O to expand capacity or recover from a component failure.
“OpenStack Compute’s bare metal capabilities provide the scalability and flexibility to build and manage large-scale public and private clouds with virtualized and dedicated servers,” said Dhiraj Mallick, corporate vice president and general manager, Data Center Server Solutions, at AMD. “The SeaMicro SM15000 server’s bare metal provisioning capabilities should simplify enterprise adoption of OpenStack and accelerate mass deployments since not all work loads are optimized for virtualized environments.”
Bare metal computing provides more predictable performance than a shared server environment using virtual servers. In a bare metal environment there are no delays caused by different virtual machines contending for shared resources, since the entire server’s resources are dedicated to a single user instance. In addition, in a bare metal environment the performance penalty imposed by the hypervisor is eliminated, allowing the application software to make full use of the processor’s capabilities
In addition to leading in bare metal provisioning, AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server provides the ability to boot and install a base server image from a central server for massive OpenStack deployments. A cloud image containing the KVM, the OpenStack Compute image and other applications can be configured by the central server. The coordination and scheduling of this workflow can be managed by Heat, the orchestration application that manages the entire lifecycle of an OpenStack cloud for bare metal and virtual machines.
Supporting Resources
- Visit the AMD SeaMicro site
- Follow AMD on Twitter @seamicroinc
Scalable Fabric-based Object Storage with the SM15000 [The Wave Newsletter from AMD, March 2013]
The SeaMicro SM15000 is changing the economics of deploying object storage, delivering the storage of unprecedented amounts of data while using 1/2 the power and 1/3 the space of traditional servers. more >
SwiftStack with OpenStack Swift Overview [SwiftStack YouTube channel, Oct 4, 2012]
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 Server Achieves Certification for Rackspace Private Cloud, Validated for OpenStack [press release, Jan 30, 2013]
Providing unprecedented computing efficiency for “Nova in a Box” and object storage capacity for “Swift in a Rack”
3. Red Hat
OpenStack + SM15000 Server = 1,000 Virtual Machines for Red Hat [The Wave Newsletter from AMD, June 2013]
Red Hat deploys one SM15000 server to quickly and cost effectively build out a high capacity server cluster to meet the growing demands for OpenShift demonstrations and to accelerate sales. Red Hat OpenShift, which runs on Red Hat OpenStack, is Red Hat’s cloud computing Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering. The service provides built-in support for nearly every open source programming language, including Node.js, Ruby, Python, PHP, Perl, and Java. OpenShift can also be expanded with customizable modules that allow developers to add other languages.
more >
Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform: Community-invented, Red Hat-hardened [RedHatCloud YouTube channel, Aug 5, 2013]
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 Server Achieves Certification for Red Hat OpenStack [press release, June 12, 2013]
BOSTON – Red Hat Summit —6/12/2013
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that its SeaMicro SM15000™ server is certified for Red Hat® OpenStack, and that the company has joined the Red Hat OpenStack Cloud Infrastructure Partner Network. The certification ensures that the SeaMicro SM15000 server provides a rigorously tested platform for organizations building private or public cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), based on the security, stability and support available with Red Hat OpenStack. AMD’s SeaMicro solutions for OpenStack include “Nova in a Box” and “Swift in a Rack” reference architectures that have been validated to ensure consistent performance, supportability and compatibility.
The SeaMicro SM15000 server integrates compute, storage and networking into a compact, 10 RU (17.5 inches) form factor with 1.28 Tbps supercompute fabric. The technology enables users to install and configure thousands of computing cores more efficiently than any other server. Complex time-consuming tasks are completed within minutes due to the integration of compute, storage and networking. Operational fire drills, such as setting up servers on short notice, manually configuring hundreds of machines and re-provisioning the network to optimize traffic are all handled through a single, easy-to-use management interface.
“AMD has shown leadership in providing a uniquely differentiated server for OpenStack deployments, and we are excited to have them as a seminal member of the Red Hat OpenStack Cloud Infrastructure Partner Network,” said Mike Werner, senior director, ISV and Developer Ecosystems at Red Hat. “The SeaMicro server is an example of incredible innovation, and I am pleased that our customers will have the SM15000 system as an option for energy-efficient, dense computing as part of the Red Hat Certified Solution Marketplace.”
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 system is the highest-density, most energy-efficient server in the market. In 10 rack units, it links 512 compute cores, 160 gigabits of I/O networking and more than five petabytes of storage with a 1.28 Terabits-per-second high-performance supercompute fabric, called Freedom™ Fabric. The SM15000 server eliminates top-of-rack switches, terminal servers, hundreds of cables and thousands of unnecessary components for a more efficient and simple operational environment.
“We are excited to be a part of the Red Hat OpenStack Cloud Infrastructure Partner Network because the company has a strong track record of bridging the communities that create open source software and the enterprises that use it,” said Dhiraj Mallick, corporate vice president and general manager, Data Center Server Solutions, AMD. “As cloud deployments accelerate, AMD’s certified SeaMicro solutions ensure enterprises are able realize the benefits of increased efficiency and simplified operations, providing them with a competitive edge and the lowest total cost of ownership.”
AMD’s SeaMicro server product family currently supports the next-generation AMD Opteron™ (“Piledriver”) processor, Intel® Xeon® E3-1260L (“Sandy Bridge”) and E3-1265Lv2 (“Ivy Bridge”) and Intel® Atom™ N570 processors. The SeaMicro SM15000 server also supports the Freedom Fabric Storage products, enabling a single system to connect with more than five petabytes of storage capacity in two racks. This approach delivers the benefits of expensive and complex solutions such as network attached storage (NAS) and storage area networking (SAN) with the simplicity and low cost of direct attached storage.
4. Ubuntu
Ubuntu Server certified hardware SeaMicro [one of Ubuntu certification pages]
Canonical works closely with SeaMicro to certify Ubuntu on a range of their hardware.
The following are all Certified. More and more devices are being added with each release, so don’t forget to check this page regularly.
Ubuntu on SeaMicro SM15000-OP | Ubuntu [Sept 1, 2013]
Ubuntu on SeaMicro SM15000-XN | Ubuntu [Oct 1, 2013]
Ubuntu on SeaMicro SM15000-XH | Ubuntu [Dec 18, 2013]
Ubuntu OIL announced for broadest set of cloud infrastructure options [Ubuntu Insights, Nov 5, 2013]
Today at the OpenStack Design Summit in Hong Kong, we announced the Ubuntu OpenStack Interoperability Lab (Ubuntu OIL). The programme will test and validate the interoperability of hardware and software in a purpose-built lab, giving Ubuntu OpenStack users the reassurance and flexibility of choice.
We’re launching the programme with many significant partners onboard, such as; Dell, EMC, Emulex, Fusion-io, HP, IBM, Inktank/Ceph, Intel, LSi, Open Compute, SeaMicro, VMware.
The OpenStack ecosystem has grown rapidly giving businesses access to a huge selection of components for their cloud environments. Most will expect that, whatever choices they make or however complex their requirements, the environment should ‘just work’, where any and all components are interoperable. That’s why we created the Ubuntu OpenStack Interoperability Lab.
Ubuntu OIL is designed to offer integration and interoperability testing as well as validation to customers, ISVs and hardware manufacturers. Ecosystem partners can test their technologies’ interoperability with Ubuntu OpenStack and a range of software and hardware, ensuring they work together seamlessly as well as with existing processes and systems. It means that manufacturers can get to market faster and with less cost, while users can minimise integration efforts required to connect Ubuntu OpenStack with their infrastructure.
Ubuntu is about giving customers choice. Over the last releases, we’ve introduced new hypervisors, and software-defined networking (SDN) stacks, and capabilities for workloads running on different types of public cloud options. Ubuntu OIL will test all of these options as well as other technologies to ensure Ubuntu OpenStack offers the broadest set of validated and supported technology options compatible with user deployments. Ubuntu OIL will test and validate for all supported and future releases of Ubuntu, Ubuntu LTS and OpenStack.
Involvement in the lab is through our Canonical Partner Programme. New partners can sign up here.
Learn more about Ubuntu OIL
5. Big Data, Hadoop
Storing Big Data – The Rise of the Storage Cloud [The Wave Newsletter from AMD, December 2012]
Data is everywhere and growing at unprecedented rates. Each year, there are over one hundred million new Internet users generating thousands of terabytes of data every day. Where will all this data be stored? more >
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 Achieves Certification for CDH4, Cloudera’s Distribution Including Apache Hadoop Version 4 [press release, March 20, 2013]
“Hadoop-in-a-Box” package accelerates deployments by providing 512 cores and over five petabytes in two racks
The Hidden Truth: Hadoop is a Hardware Investment [The Wave Newsletter from AMD, September 2013]
Apache Hadoop is a leading software application for analyzing big data, but its performance and reliability are tied to a company’s underlying server architecture. Learn how AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000™ server compares with other minimum scale deployments. more >
The Cortex-A53 as the Cortex-A7 replacement core is succeeding as a sweet-spot IP for various 64-bit high-volume market SoCs to be delivered from H2 CY14 on
… not suprisingly as it is built on the same micro-architecture. Even Intel will manufacture Cortex-A53 based SoCs for Altera (Stratix 10 FPGA SoCs) in 2015 on its leading edge Tri-Gate (FinFET) 14nm process.
With MediaTek MT6592-based True Octa-core superphones are on the market to beat Qualcomm Snapdragon 800-based ones [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Dec 21, 2013] MediaTek will follow up with a 4G LTE MT6595 version in January, and with a 64-bit version based on Cortex-A53 instead of Cortex-A7 in H2 CY14. In this way it will be able to compete head-on with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 in the most lucrative high-volume market.
According to 大陸4G啟動 聯發科快攻 [Commercial Times, Dec 10, 2013]: “MediaTek MT6590’s first 4G modem chip is expected to begin shipping next month, in addition to 4G systems integration single chip (SoC) MT6595 has appeared earlier this month in the customer’s specification sheet, and 8-core as the main design, not difficult to see MediaTek ambition to expand high-end market.”
MediaTek delivering 4G LTE chips for verification, say paper [DIGITIMES, Dec 18, 2013]
MediaTek reportedly has delivered its first 4G LTE chip, the MT6590, to potential clients for verification. The chips are expected to begin generating revenues for the IC design house in the first quarter of 2014, according to a Chinese-language Liberty Times report. The MT6590 supports five modes and 10 frequency bands.
The news echoes earlier remarks by MediaTek president Hsieh Ching-chiang stating the company plans to launch 4G chips at year-end 2013 with end-market devices powered by the 4G chips to be available in the first quarter of 2014, the paper added.
Citing data from JPMorgan Chase, the paper said shipments of MediaTek’s first 8-core chip, the MT6592, are higher than expected and shipment momentum is likely to continue into the first quarter of 2014.
The latest news: Chipset vendors to showcase 64-bit smartphone solutions at CES 2014 [DIGITIMES, Dec 23, 2013]
Chipset players including Qualcomm, Nvidia, Marvell Technology and Broadcom all are expected to showcase 64-bit processors for smartphone applications at the upcoming CES 2014 trade show, a move which will add pressure on Taiwan-based MediaTek in its efforts to expand market share with its newly released 8-core CPUs, according to industry sources.
Qualcomm has already unveiled a 64-bit-chip, the Snapdragon 410, and is expected to begin sampling in the first half of 2014, according to the company.
Nvidia, which is familiar with 64-bit computing architectures, is expected to start volume production of 64-bit chips for smartphones in the first half of 2014 at the earliest, said industry sources.
Marvell and Broadcom are also expected to highlight their 64-bit chips at CES 2014, kicking off competition in the 64-bit chipset segment, note the sources.
Meanwhile, the vendors, as well as China-based chipset suppliers Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics, will also exert efforts to take market share from MediaTek in the entry-level to mid-range chipset segment in 2014, commented the sources.
From: 64-bit smartphones to be ushered in 2014, say sources [DIGITIMES, Dec 11, 2013]
… Qualcomm has also claimed that the Snapdragon 410 will support all major operating systems, including Android, Windows Phone and Firefox OS and that Qualcomm Reference Design versions of the processor will be available to enable rapid development time and reduce OEM R&D, designed to provide a comprehensive mobile device platform. However, the observers noted that the Snapdragon 410 chips are aiming at the mid-range LTE smartphone segment, particularly the sub-CNY1,000 (US$165) sector in China. The launch of the mid-range 64-bit Snapdragon chips also aims to widen its lead against Taiwan-based rival MediaTek in the China market, the sources added. Qualcomm said the Snapdragon 410 processor is expected to be in commercial devices in the second half of 2014. …
Samsung Electronics is also believed to be working on its own 64-bit CPUs in house and expected to launch 64-bit capable flagship models in the first half of 2014 at the earliest, said the observers.
The 64-bit versions of CPUs from MediaTek, Broadcom and Nvidia are likely to come in late 2014 or in 2015, added the sources.
Google is expected to accelerate the upgrading of its Android platform, providing an environment for software developers to work on related 64-bit applications, commented the sources.
Taiwan IC suppliers developing chips for MediaTek smartphone solutions [DIGITIMES, Dec 18, 2013]
MediaTek’s growing shipments of smartphone solutions, which are expected to top 200 million units in 2013 and 300 million units in 2014, have encouraged Taiwan-based suppliers of LCD driver ICs, power management ICs, ambient light sensors, gyroscopes, touchscreen controller ICs and MEMS microphones to develop chips that can be incorporated into these smartphone solutions, according to industry sources.
MediaTek has been focusing its R&D efforts on developments of 4- and 8-core and 4G CPUs as well as wireless chips in order to maintain its competitiveness, while relying on other IC vendors to complete its smartphone solution platforms, the sources noted.
With MediaTek’s smartphone solution shipments expected to reach 30 million units a month in 2014, any suppliers which can deliver IC parts for MediaTek’s smartphone platforms will see their revenues and profits grow substantially in 2014, the sources said.
Qualcomm Technologies Introduces Snapdragon 410 Chipset with Integrated 4G LTE World Mode for High-Volume Smartphones [press release, Dec 9, 2013]
4G LTE, 64-Bit Processing Expands Qualcomm Technologies’ Global Product Offerings and Reference Design Program
SAN DIEGO – December 09, 2013 – Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., has introduced the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 410 chipset with integrated 4G LTE World Mode. The delivery of faster connections is important to the growth and adoption of smartphones in emerging regions, and Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets are poised to address the needs of consumers as 4G LTE begins to ramp in China.
The new Snapdragon 410 chipsets are manufactured using 28nm process technology. They feature processors that are 64-bit capable along with superior graphics performance with the Adreno 306 GPU, 1080p video playback and up to a 13 Megapixel camera. Snapdragon 410 chipsets integrate 4G LTE and 3G cellular connectivity for all major modes and frequency bands across the globe and include support for Dual and Triple SIM. Together with Qualcomm RF360 Front End Solution, Snapdragon 410 chipsets will have multiband and multimode support. Snapdragon 410 chipsets also feature Qualcomm Technologies’ Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM and NFC functionality, and support all major navigation constellations: GPS, GLONASS, and China’s new BeiDou, which helps deliver enhanced accuracy and speed of Location data to Snapdragon-enabled handsets.
The chipset also supports all major operating systems, including the Android, Windows Phone and Firefox operating systems. Qualcomm Reference Design versions of the processor will be available to enable rapid development time and reduce OEM R&D, designed to provide a comprehensive mobile device platform. The Snapdragon 410 processor is anticipated to begin sampling in the first half of 2014 and expected to be in commercial devices in the second half of 2014.
Qualcomm Technologies also announced for the first time the intention to make 4G LTE available across all of the Snapdragon product tiers. The Snapdragon 410 processor gives the 400 product tier several 4G LTE options for high-volume mobile devices, as the third LTE-enabled solution in the product tier. By offering 4G LTE variants to its entry level smartphone lineup, Qualcomm Technologies ensures that emerging regions are equipped for this transition while also having every major 2G and 3G technology available to them. Qualcomm Technologies offers OEMs and operators differentiation through a rich feature set upon which to build innovative high-volume smartphones for budget-conscious consumers.
“We are excited to bring 4G LTE to highly affordable smartphones at a sub $150 ( ̴ 1,000 RMB) price point with the introduction of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor,” said Jeff Lorbeck, senior vice president and chief operating officer, Qualcomm Technologies, China. “The Snapdragon 410 chipset will also be the first of many 64-bit capable processors as Qualcomm Technologies helps lead the transition of the mobile ecosystem to 64-bit processing.”
Qualcomm Technologies will release the Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) version of the Snapdragon 410 processor with support for Qualcomm RF360™ Front End Solution. The QRD program offers Qualcomm Technologies’ leading technical innovation, easy customization options, the QRD Global Enablement Solution which features regional software packages, modem configurations, testing and acceptance readiness for regional operator requirements, and access to a broad ecosystem of hardware component vendors and software application developers. Under the QRD program, customers can rapidly deliver differentiated smartphones to value-conscious consumers. There have been more than 350 public QRD-based product launches to date in collaboration with more than 40 OEMs in 18 countries.
Note that just 18 days before that there was the news that Qualcomm Technologies Announces Next Generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 “Ultra HD” Processor [press release, Nov 20, 2013]
Mobile Technology Leader Announces its Highest Performance Processor Designed to Deliver the Highest Quality Mobile Video, Camera and Graphics to Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Tier
NEW YORK – November 20, 2013 – Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., introduced the next generation mobile processor of the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 800 tier, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, which is designed to deliver the highest-quality mobile video, imaging and graphics experiences at Ultra HD (4K) resolution, both on device and via Ultra HD TVs. Featuring the new Adreno 420 GPU, with up to 40 percent more graphics processing power than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 805 processor is the first mobile processor to offer system-level Ultra HD support, 4K video capture and playback and enhanced dual camera Image Signal Processors (ISPs), for superior performance, multitasking, power efficiency and mobile user experiences.
The Snapdragon 805 processor is Qualcomm Technologies’ newest and highest performing Snapdragon processor to date, featuring:
– Blazing fast apps and web browsing and outstanding performance: Krait 450 quad-core CPU, the first mobile CPU to run at speeds of up to 2.5 GHz per core, plus superior memory bandwidth support of up to 25.6 GB/second that is designed to provide unprecedented multimedia and web browsing performance.
– Smooth, sharp user interface and games support Ultra HD resolution: The mobile industry’s first end-to-end Ultra HD solution with on-device display concurrent with output to HDTV; features Qualcomm Technologies’ new Adreno 420 GPU, which introduces support for hardware tessellation and geometry shaders, for advanced 4K rendering, with even more realistic scenes and objects, visually stunning user interface, graphics and mobile gaming experiences at lower power.
– Fast, seamless connected mobile experiences: Custom, efficient integration with either the Qualcomm® Gobi™ MDM9x25 or the Gobi MDM9x35 modem, powering superior seamless connected mobile experiences. The Gobi MDM9x25 chipset announced in February 2013 has seen significant adoption as the first embedded, mobile computing solution to support LTE carrier aggregation and LTE Category 4 with superior peak data rates of up to 150Mbps. Additionally, Qualcomm’s most advanced Wi-Fi for mobile, 2-stream dual-band Qualcomm® VIVE™ 802.11ac, enables wireless 4K video streaming and other media-intensive applications. With a low-power PCIe interface to the QCA6174, tablets and high-end smartphones can take advantage of faster mobile Wi-Fi performance (over 600 Mbps), extended operating range and concurrent Bluetooth connections, with minimal impact on battery life.
– Ability to stream more video content at higher quality using less power: Support for Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) for video post processing, first to introduce hardware 4K HEVC (H.265) decode for mobile for extremely low-power HD video playback.
– Sharper, higher resolution photos in low light and advanced post-processing features: First Gpixel/s throughput camera support in a mobile processor designed for a significant increase in camera speed and imaging quality. Sensor processing with gyro integration enables image stabilization for sharper, crisper photos. Qualcomm Technologies is the first to announce a mobile processor with advanced, low-power, integrated sensor processing, enabled by its custom DSP, designed to deliver a wide range of sensor-enabled mobile experiences.
“Using a smartphone or tablet powered by Snapdragon 805 processor is like having an UltraHD home theater in your pocket, with 4K video, imaging and graphics, all built for mobile,” said Murthy Renduchintala, executive vice president, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and co-president, QCT. “We’re delivering the mobile industry’s first truly end-to-end Ultra HD solution, and coupled with our industry leading Gobi LTE modems and RF transceivers, streaming and watching content at 4K resolution will finally be possible.”
The Snapdragon 805 processor is sampling now and expected to be available in commercial devices by the first half of 2014.
The original value proposition was presented in the brief Brian Jeff highlights the ARM® Cortex™-A53 processor [ARMflix YouTube channel, Oct 30, 2012] video as follows
The Top 5 Things to Know about Cortex-A53 [Brian Jeff on ‘ARM Connected Community’, Oct 28, 2013]
The Cortex-A53 was introduced to the market in October 2012, delivering the ARMv8 instruction set and significantly increased performance in a highly efficient power and area footprint. It is available for licensing now, and will be deployed in silicon in early 2014 by multiple ARM partners. There are a few key aspects of the Cortex-A53 that developers, OEMs, and SoC designers should know:
1. ARM low power / high efficiency heritage
The ARM9 is the most licensed processor in ARM’s history with over 250 licenses sold. It identified a very important power/cost sweet spot.The Cortex-A5 (launched in 2009) was designed to fit in the CPU same power and area footprint,
ARM926-based feature phone (Nokia E60).
while delivering significantly higher performance and power-efficiency, and bring it to modern ARMv7 feature set – software compatibility with the high end of the processor roadmap (then Cortex-A9)
The Cortex-A53 is built around a simple pipeline, 8 stages long with in-order execution like the Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A5 processors that preceded it. An instruction traversing a simple pipeline requires fewer registers and switches less logic to fetch, decode, issue, execute, and write back the results than a more complex pipeline microarchitecture. Simpler pipelines are smaller and lower power. The high efficiency Cortex-A CPU product line, consisting of Cortex-A5, Cortex-A7, and Cortex-A53, takes a design approach prioritizing efficiency first, then seeking as much performance as possible at the maximum efficiency. The added performance in each successive generation in this series comes from advances in the memory system, increasing dual-issue capability, expanded internal busses, and improved branch prediction.
2. ARM v8-A Architecture
The Cortex-A53 is fully compliant with the ARMv8-A architecture, which is the latest ARM architecture and introduces support for 64b operation while maintaining 100% backward compatibility with the broadly deployed ARMv7 architecture. The processor can switch between AArch32 and AArch64 modes of operation to allow 32bit apps and 64bit apps to run together on top of a 64bit operating system. This dual execution state support allows maximum flexibility for developers and SoC designers in managing the rollout of 64bit support in different markets. ARMv8-A brings additional features (more registers, new instructions) that bring increased performance and Cortex-A53 is able to take advantage of these.
3. Higher performance than Cortex-A9: smaller and more efficient too
The Cortex-A9 features an out-of-order pipeline, dual issue capability, and a longer pipeline than Cortex-A53 that enables 15% higher frequency operation. However the Cortex-A53 achieves higher single thread performance by pushing a simpler design farther – some of the key factors enabling the performance of the Cortex-A53 include the integrated low latency level 2 cache, the larger 512 entry main TLB, and the complex branch predictor. The Cortex-A9 has set the bar for the high end of the smartphone market through 2012 – by matching and exceeding that level of performance in a smaller footprint and power budget, the Cortex-A53 delivers performance to entry level devices that was previously enjoyed by high-end flagship mobile devices – in a lower power budget and at lower cost. The graph below compares the single thread performance of the high efficiency Cortex-A processors with the Cortex-A9. At the same frequency, Cortex-A53 delivers more than 20% higher instruction throughput than the Cortex-A9 for representative workloads.
4. Supports big.LITTLE with Cortex-A57
The Cortex-A53 is architecturally identical to the higher performance Cortex-A57 processor, and can be integrated with it in a big.LITTLE processor subsystem. big.LITTLE enables peak performance and extreme efficiency by distributing work to the right-sized processor for the task at hand.
It is described in more detail here – Ten Things to Know About big.LITTLE
The diagram above shows Cortex-A53 combined with Cortex-A57 and a Mali-T628Graphics processor in an example system. The CCI-400 cache coherent interconnect allows the 2 CPU clusters to be combined in a seamless way that allows software to manage the task allocation in a highly transparent way, as described in <link – software>. The big.LITTLE system enables peak performance at low average power.
Cortex-A53 in ideal for use in a standalone use scenario, delivering excellent performance at very low power and area enabling new features to be supported in the low cost smartphone segments Our new LITTLE processor packs a performance punch.
Read more about that in a somewhat humorous blog on Cortex-A53 from the product launch – ARM Cortex-A53 — Who You callin’ LITTLE?
5. Extensive feature set for broad application support
The Cortex-A53 includes a feature set that allows it to be configured and optimized through physical implementation tailored to mobile SoCs and to scalable enterprise systems
Mobile Features
Enterprise Features
- AMBA 4 ACE Coherent bus
- big.LITTLE processing (2 CPU Clusters) with CCI-400 interconnect
- AMBA5 CHI Coherent bus
Scalable to 4 or more coherent CPU clustersfor low-cost servers or networking infrastructure devices.
- 16-core systems with CCN-504 or 32-core systems with CCN-508 – all on a single silicon die.
Small area, low power design
Optimized for <150mW envelope
Small area, low power design.
Likely still optimized for 150 mW. However, higher performance implementations can be used
ECC, parity available, but configurable if not needed
ECC and parity protection required for enterprise applications
See also:
- ARM Announces New High-Performance System IP to Address Demand for Energy-Efficient ‘Many-core’ Solutions for the Enterprise Market [press release, Oct 10, 2012]: “To address the significant increase in data over the next 10-15 years, and the demand for more energy-efficient network infrastructure and servers, ARM has announced the ARM® CoreLink™ CCN-504 cache coherent network. This advanced system intellectual property (IP) can deliver up to one terabit of usable system bandwidth per second.”
- ARM Launches Cortex-A50 Series, the World’s Most Energy-Efficient 64-bit Processors [press release, Oct 30, 2012]
- ARM Announces POP IP for Cortex-A50 Series Processors on TSMC 28nm HPM and 16nm FinFET Processes [press release, April 9, 2013]
- ARM Announces AMBA 5 CHI Specification to Enable High Performance, Highly Scalable System on Chip Technology [press release, June 3, 2013]
- Huawei announces global agreement to licence ARMv8 architecture – Agreement underlines Huawei’s commitment to IPR and the UK [Huawei press release, Sept 4, 2013]
- From: AMD Details Embedded Product Roadmap [AMD press release, Sept 9, 2013]:
“ ‘Hierofalcon’ CPU SoC ‘Hierofalcon’ is the first 64-bit ARM-based platform from AMD targeting embedded data center applications, communications infrastructure and industrial solutions. It will include up to eight ARM Cortex™-A57 CPUs expected to run up to 2.0 GHz, and provides high-performance memory with two 64-bit DDR3/4 channels with error correction code (ECC) for high reliability applications. The highly integrated SoC includes 10 Gb KR Ethernet and PCI-Express Gen 3 for high-speed network connectivity, making it ideal for control plane applications. The “Hierofalcon” series also provides enhanced security with support for ARM TrustZone® technology and a dedicated cryptographic security co-processor, aligning to the increased need for networked, secure systems. “Hierofalcon” is expected to be sampling in the second quarter of 2014 with production in the second half of the year.” - MediaTek extends partnership with ARM to drive next-generation mobile and consumer technology [joint press release, Oct 8, 2013]: “MediaTek has acquired a broad license to Cortex-A50 Series processor cores and the next generation of ARM Mali graphics processing Unit (GPU) solutions.”
- Broadcom Announces Server-Class ARMv8-A Multi-Core Processor Architecture –Optimized to Deliver Industry’s Highest Performance for Next-Generation Networking and Communications Applications [Broadcom press release, Oct 15, 2013]:
- Quad-issue, quad-threaded 64-bit ARMv8-A core with superscalar out-of-order execution delivers true server-class performance
- Core enables 3-GHz performance in the advanced 16-nm FINFET process node
- Partnership with ARM aims to define and develop an open, ISA-independent Network Function Virtualization (NFV) software environment
- Coherent Interconnect Technology Supports Exponential Data Flow Growth [Ian Forsyth on ‘ARM Connected Community’, Oct 26, 2013]: “Recently I presented “Coherent Interconnect Technology Supports Exponential Data Flow Growth” at the Linley Processor conference in Santa Clara, CA where I announced a new ARM coherent interconnect product for enterprise applications, the CoreLink CCN-508. … CoreLink CCN-508 is a cache coherent network providing support for up to 32 fully coherent cores. Supported cores include Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53.” From: “ARM is just beginning to engage with customers for the CCN-508, and it expects the first SoCs using this IP to enter production in late 2014 or early 2015.”
- Rockchip extends partnership with arm by subscription license of ATM processor and GPU technologies [press release, Nov 5, 2013]
ARM Cortex-A53 — Who You callin’ LITTLE? [Brian Jeff on ‘ARM Connected Community’, Oct 30, 2013]
I may only weigh in at just over half a square millimeter on die, but I can handle a heavy workload and I pack quite a processing punch, and frankly I’m tired of the lack of respect I get as a “LITTLE” processor. I am the CortexTM-A53 processor from ARM, some of you may have previously known me by my code name “Apollo”. Despite being three times as efficient as my big brother, the Cortex-A57, and delivering more performance than today’s current heavyweight champ the Cortex-A9, I am often overlooked.
Processor designers and consumers alike look to the big core, the top end MHz figure, and the number of big processors in the system when they evaluate devices like premium smartphones and tablets. What they don’t realize is that I’m the one running during most of the time the mobile applications cluster is awake, and I’m the one that will enable improvements in battery life even as delivered peak performance increases dramatically. It is high time that the LITTLE processor gets the respect and appreciation that is due.
I’m speaking not just for myself here, but for my close cousin the Cortex-A7. We’re built from the same DNA, so to speak, sharing the same 8-stage pipeline and in-order structure. We both consume about the same level of power on our respective production process nodes, and although I bring added performance and support 64-bit, we are both quite alike. We are 100% code compatible for 32-bit code after all. And yet we don’t get the respect we deserve. It is an injustice, really.
In high-end mobile devices, my cousin the Cortex-A7 is always telling me how everyone wants to hear about how fast the Cortex-A15 is in the system, how many Cortex-A15 CPUs are in the system, and how many MaliTM GPU cores are built into the SoC. They don’t even notice if there are four Cortex-A7 cores in the design capable of delivering plenty of performance — more performance than a lot of smartphones in the market today. They just expect battery life to improve without giving any credit to the LITTLE processor that makes it possible.
Well they will soon see… big.LITTLE processors are coming into the market next year, nearly sampling already, and the capability of the LITTLE processor will be in full view, let me tell you.
Oh, and another thing — in the enterprise space, what they call “big Iron” — there is almost no recognition of the worth of small processors there. Sure, new designs are considering LITTLE processors in many-core topologies with ARM’s CoreLinkTM Cache Coherent Network (CCN) interconnect, but look at the products that are deployed today — they are mostly based on big cores, the bigger the better. Nowhere is this more evident than in the server space, where IT managers brag about how big their server racks are. Just wait and see. New server processors are being developed based on ARM, where even my big brother the Cortex-A57 is about an order of magnitude smaller and lower power than the incumbent processors. I’m in a different weight class altogether, but I can hang with the big boys on total performance. Purpose-built servers using lots of Cortex-A53 cores can deliver even more aggregate performance in a given power and thermal envelope. But are we LITTLE cores getting much attention in servers today? No. Well just watch and see. In 2015 when the first Cortex-A50 series 64-bit processors are built for lower power servers, you won’t be able to help but notice that LITTLE processors can get key jobs done in a lot less energy.
So I may be the same size relative to my Cortex-A57 big brother as the Cortex-A7 is to the Cortex-A15, but OEMs and consumers better not underestimate me. I’ve been going through intensive work these past 2 years to build up my muscles in the places that count: my SIMD performance is way up thanks to the improved NEONTM architectural support in ARMv8 and a much wider NEON datapath. I can dual-issue almost anything. My memory system is also juiced up, as is my branch predictor capability. That’s how I can pack a bigger punch than Cortex-A9 at around a quarter the power in our respective process nodes.
That’s all I’m saying, man. You gotta respect the LITTLE processor.
Peace.
AnandTech Live with ARM’s Peter Greenhalgh [anandshimpi YouTube channel, Dec 20, 2013]
From the earlier: Answered by the Experts: ARM’s Cortex A53 Lead Architect, Peter Greenhalgh [AnandTech, Dec 17, 2013]
Cortex-A53 has been designed to be able to easily replace Cortex-A7. For example, Cortex-A7 supports the same bus-interface standards (and widths) as Cortex-A7 which allows a partner who has already built a Cortex-A7 platform to rapidly convert to Cortex-A53.
A Cortex-A53 cluster only supports up to 4-cores. If more than 4-cores are required in a platform then multiple clusters can be implemented and coherently connected using an interconnect such as CCI-400. The reason for not scaling to 8-cores per cluster is that the L2 micro-architecture would need to either compromise energy-efficiency in the 1-4 core range to achieve performance in the 4-8 core range, or compromise performance in the 4-8 core range to maximise energy-efficiency in the 1-4 core range.
We expect to see a range of platform configurations using Cortex-A53. A 4+4 Cortex-A53 platform configuration is fully supported and a logical progression from a 4+4 Cortex-A7 platform.
We’re pretty happy with the 8-stage (integer) Cortex-A53 pipeline and it has served us well across the Cortex-A53, Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A5 family. So far it’s scaled nicely from 65nm to 16nm and frequencies approaching 2GHz so there’s no reason to think this won’t hold true in the future.
Cortex-A53 has the same pipeline length as Cortex-A7 so I would expect to see similar frequencies when implemented on the same process geometry. Within the same pipeline length the design team focussed on increasing dual-issue, in-order performance as far as we possibly could. This involved symmetric dual-issue of most of the instruction set, more forwarding paths in the datapaths, reduced issue latency, larger & more associative TLB, vastly increased conditional and indirect branch prediction resources and expanded instruction and data prefetching. The result of all these changes is an increase in SPECInt-2000 performance from 0.35-SPEC/Mhz on Cortex-A7 to 0.50-SPEC/Mhz on Cortex-A53. This should provide a noticeable performance uplift on the next generation of smartphones using Cortex-A53.
Due to the power-efficiency of Cortex-A53 on a 28nm platform, all 4 cores can comfortably be executing at 1.4GHz in less than 750mW which is easily sustainable in a current smartphone platform even while the GPU is in operation.
The performance per watt (energy efficiency) of Cortex-A53 is very similar to Cortex-A7. Certainly within the variation you would expect with different implementations. Largely this is down to learning from Cortex-A7 which was applied to Cortex-A53 both in performance and power.
Intel to make ARM Processors, firstly 64bit 14nm ARM Cortex-A53 ARMv8 for Altera [Charbax YouTube channel, Oct 31, 2013]
Altera Announces Quad-Core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 for Stratix 10 SoCs [press release, Oct 29, 2013]
Manufactured on Intel’s 14 nm Tri-Gate Process, Altera Stratix® 10 SoCs Will Deliver Industry’s Most Versatile Heterogeneous Computing Platform
Santa Clara, Calif., ARM TechCon, October 29, 2013—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced that its Stratix 10 SoC devices, manufactured on Intel’s 14 nm Tri-Gate process, will incorporate a high-performance, quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex™-A53 processor system, complementing the device’s floating-point digital signal processing (DSP) blocks and high-performance FPGA fabric. Coupled with Altera’s advanced system-level design tools, including OpenCL, this versatile heterogeneous computing platform will offer exceptional adaptability, performance, power efficiency and design productivity for a broad range of applications, including data center computing acceleration, radar systems and communications infrastructure.
From: Intel fabs Altera’s Stratix 10 FPGA with four ARM A53 cores [SemiAccurate, Nov 5, 2013]: Altera representatives at Techcon said that the beast would tape out in Q4/2014 or about a year from now. From: Pigs Fly. Altera Goes with ARM on Intel 14nm [SemiWiki.com, Oct 29, 2013]:
I asked Altera about the schedule for all of this. Currently they have over 100 customers using the beta release of their software to model their applications in the Stratix 10. They have taped out a test-chip that is currently in the Intel fab. In the first half of next year they will have a broader release of the software to everyone. They will tape out the actual designs late in 2014 and have volume production starting in early 2015.
Why did they pick this processor? It has the highest power efficiency of any 64-bit processor. Plus it is backwards compatible with previous Altera families which used (32-bit) ARM Cortex-A9. The A53 has a 32-bit mode that is completely binary compatible with the A9. As I reported last week from the Linley conference, ARM is on a roll into communications infrastructure, enterprise and datacenter so there is a huge overlap between the target markets for the A53 and the target markets for the Stratix 10 SoCs.
The ARM Cortex-A53 processor, the first 64-bit processor used on a SoC FPGA, is an ideal fit for use in Stratix 10 SoCs due to its performance, power efficiency, data throughput and advanced features. The Cortex-A53 is among the most power efficient of ARM’s application-class processors, and when delivered on the 14 nm Tri-Gate process will achieve more than six times more data throughput compared to today’s highest performing SoC FPGAs. The Cortex-A53 also delivers important features, such as virtualization support, 256TB memory reach and error correction code (ECC) on L1 and L2 caches. Furthermore, the Cortex-A53 core can run in 32-bit mode, which will run Cortex-A9 operating systems and code unmodified, allowing a smooth upgrade path from Altera’s 28 nm and 20 nm SoC FPGAs.
“ARM is pleased to see Altera adopting the lowest power 64-bit architecture as an ideal complement to DSP and FPGA processing elements to create a cutting-edge heterogeneous computing platform,” said Tom Cronk, executive vice president and general manager, Processor Division, ARM. “The Cortex-A53 processor delivers industry-leading power efficiency and outstanding performance levels, and it is supported by the ARM ecosystem and its innovative software community.”
Leveraging Intel’s 14 nm Tri-Gate process and an enhanced high-performance architecture, Altera Stratix 10 SoCs will have a programmable-logic performance level of more than 1GHz; two times the core performance of current high-end 28 nm FPGAs.
“High-end networking and communications infrastructure are rapidly migrating toward heterogeneous computing architectures to achieve maximum system performance and power efficiency,” said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at The Linley Group, a leading embedded research firm. “What Altera is doing with its Stratix 10 SoC, both in terms of silicon convergence and high-level design tool support, puts the company at the forefront of delivering heterogeneous computing platforms and positions them well to capitalize on myriad opportunities.”
By standardizing on ARM processors across its three-generation SoC portfolio, Altera will offer software compatibility and a common ARM ecosystem of tools and operating system support. Embedded developers will be able to accelerate debug cycles with Altera’s SoC Embedded Design Suite (EDS) featuring the ARM Development Studio 5 (DS-5™) Altera® Edition toolkit, the industry’s only FPGA-adaptive debug tool, as well as use Altera’s software development kit (SDK) for OpenCL to create heterogeneous implementations using the OpenCL high-level design language.
“With Stratix 10 SoCs, designers will have a versatile and powerful heterogeneous compute platform enabling them to innovate and get to market faster,” said Danny Biran, senior vice president, corporate strategy and marketing at Altera. “This will be very exciting for customers as converged silicon continues to be the best solution for complex, high-performance applications.”
About Altera
Altera® programmable solutions enable designers of electronic systems to rapidly and cost effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Altera offers FPGAs, SoCs, CPLDs, ASICs and complementary technologies, such as power management, to provide high-value solutions to customers worldwide. Follow Altera viaFacebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and RSS, andsubscribe to product update emails and newsletters. altera.com
My Altera will use Intel Custom Foundry’s 14 nm Tri-Gate (FinFET) process services to produce its new high-end SoC FPGA with 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 IP [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Nov 1, 2013] post was already answering in detail the following questions that arised from the above announcement:
- Why FPGAs? Why more FPGAs?
- Why SoC FPGAs?
- Why ARM with FPGA on the Intel Tri-Gate (FinFET) process, and why now?
- OpenCL for FPGAs
- Altera SoC FPGAs
MediaTek MT6592-based True Octa-core superphones are on the market to beat Qualcomm Snapdragon 800-based ones UPDATE: from $147+ in Q1 and $132+ in Q2
… prices are starting as low as $247 in China (ZOPO Black 2, sold outside as ZP998)
UPDATE: China market: Prices of octa-core smartphones drifting below CNY1,000 [US$165] [DIGITIMES, Jan 27, 2014]
The battle for the entry-level smartphone segment in China is intensifying, and Coolpad with releasing an octa-core model priced below CNY1,000 (US$165), according to industry sources.
The Coolpad Great God F1, one of two 8-core smartphones released by Coolpad recently, comes with a MediaTek 1.7GHz 8-core MT5692 processor, 5-inch display with 720p resolution and 13-megapixel camera, and a price tag of only CNY888 (US$147).
China-based vendors including ZTE, Huawei, Lenovo, TCL and Gionee have launched 8-core smartphones with prices ranging from CNY1,699-1,999 (US$280-330).
My own insert here: Currently the cheapest one on the market outside China is the Ulefone U9592 : http://www.fastcardtech.com/Ulefone-U9592
Ulefone U9592 – Ulefone is the cheapest MTK6592 smart phone so far, but it has the best performance on the hardware as you can see in the review. The quality of the display is really good, even better then 720P. 5.0inch capacitive touch screen 854×480 MTK6592 Cortex A7 Octa core CPU,1.7GHz 2GB RAM +16GB ROM Dual camera:2.0MP front camera and 8.0MP back camera with flashlight Dual SIM Card Dual Standby
This video is from another vendor, |
Coolpad’s aggressive pricing will force other vendors to slash their prices soon, commented the sources.
Xiaomi Technology also plans to launch an 8-core model in the second quarter of 2014, and market sources believe that Xiaomi is likely to tag the price of its 8-core model at CNY799 (US$132).
The keen competition in the 8-core segment could also affect pricing for the 4G LTE smartphone market, said the sources, adding that prices of mainstream LTE models will fall to around CNY1,500 (US$248) in the first half of 2014 and drop to below CNY1,000 (US$165) in the second half of the year.
Demand for low-cost entry-level LTE smartphones from China Mobile, and fierce competition among LTE chipset suppliers including Qualcomm, Marvell Technology, MediaTek and Spreadtrum Communications will also accelerate price erosion of LTE smartphones, added the sources.
And here is the case of a global brand: Alcatel One Touch Idol X+ 5″ 1080p with MT6592 Octa Core [Charbax YouTube channel, Jan 17, 2014], list price indication given to PCMag was: “Alcatel projected a ballpark price point of below $300.”
END OF UPDATE
Detailed MT6592 SoC information is in Eight-core MT6592 for superphones and big.LITTLE MT8135 for tablets implemented in 28nm HKMG are coming from MediaTek to further disrupt the operations of Qualcomm and Samsung [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, July 20-29, 2013]. See also MediaTek True Octa-core [MediaTek technology page, July 22, 2013].
MT6592 True Octa-core : Performance Benchmark [mediateklab YouTube channel, Dec 20, 2013], its Chinese version was made available on Youku Nov 23, 2013, the competitor’s quad-core at 2.3GHz is obviously the Snapdragon 800
MT6592 True Octa-Core: Thermal Benchmark [mediateklab YouTube channel, Dec 20, 2013]
MT6592 True Octa-Core : Low Power Benchmark
MediaTek Launches MT6592 True Octa-Core Mobile Platform [MediaTek press release, Nov 20, 2013]
The MT6592 is the world’s first heterogeneous computing SOC with scalable eight-core processing for superior multi-tasking, industry-leading multimedia and excellent performance-per-watt.
TAIWAN, Hsinchu – 20 November, 2013 – MediaTek Incorporated (2454:TT) today unveiled the MT6592, the world’s first true octa-core mobile platform. The MediaTek MT6592 System on a Chip (SOC) combines an advanced eight-core application processor with industry-leading multimedia capabilities and mobile connectivity for a perfect balance of performance and power consumption.
The greater computational capabilities of the MediaTek MT6592 deliver premium gaming performance, advanced multi-tasking and enhanced web browsing for high-end smartphones and tablets. The MT6592 builds on the success of existing MediaTek quad-core mobile platforms, which have revolutionized price-performance efficiency for mobile devices, and is expected to be available in devices running Android ‘Jelly Bean’ by the end of 2013. MT6592 enabled mobile devices running Android ‘Kit-Kat’ are expected in early 2014.
Building on the advanced 28nm HPM high-performance process, the MT6592 has eight CPU cores, each capable of clock speeds up to 2GHz. The true octa-core architecture is fully scalable, and the MT6592 runs both low-power and more demanding tasks equally effectively by harnessing the full capabilities of all eight cores in any combination. An advanced MediaTek scheduling algorithm also monitors temperature and power consumption to ensure optimum performance at all times.
The MT6592 features a world-class multimedia subsystem with a quad-core graphics engine, an advanced video playback system supporting Ultra-HD 4Kx2K H.264 video playback and support for new video codecs such as H.265 and VP9, a 16-megapixel camera and a Full HD display. The SOC also features MediaTek ClearMotion™ technology for automatic frame-rate conversion of standard 24/30fps video to high-quality 60fps video for significantly smoother playback.
Enhancing mobile performance still further, the MT6592 incorporates the MediaTek advanced multi-mode cellular modem and a full connectivity capability for dual-band 801.11n Wi-Fi, Miracast screen-sharing as well as Bluetooth, GPS and an FM tuner.
In addition to MediaTek’s leadership in Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) in CPU, all of its mobile SOC’s including the MT6592 have been using a Heterogeneous Computing (HC) architecture, distributing the workload to different kinds of processors and other specialized computing engines to optimize performance. These HC building blocks include the CPU, GPU, DSP, multiple connectivity engines, multiple multimedia engines, camera engines, display engines, navigation, and sensor cores. MediaTek is committed to apply the best-in-class technologies to each of these building blocks.
“We are thrilled to offer the new MT6592 to our customers as part of our ongoing commitment to providing inclusive mobile technology,” said Jeffrey Ju, MediaTek General Manager, Smartphone Business Unit. ”The MT6592 delivers longer battery life, low-latency response times and the best possible mobile multimedia experience. Being the first to market with this advanced eight-core SOC is testament to the industry-leading position of MediaTek.”
” MediaTek has taken a pioneering position with the MT6592 by being the first to use the power-efficient ARM® Cortex®-A7 processor in an octa-core configuration with the ARM Mali™ GPU,” said Noel Hurley, ARM Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, Processor Division. “We are delighted that our partnership with MediaTek continues to deliver new and innovative mobile consumer products, extending our low-power and high-performance leadership in mobile devices.”
###
About MediaTek Inc.
MediaTek Inc. is a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions. The company is a market leader and pioneer in cutting-edge SOC system solutions for wireless communications, high-definition TV, optical storage, and DVD and Blu-ray products. Founded in 1997 and listed on Taiwan Stock Exchange under the “2454” code, MediaTek is headquartered in Taiwan and has sales or research subsidiaries in Mainland China, Singapore, India, United States, Japan, Korea, Denmark, England, Sweden and Dubai. For more information, visit MediaTek’s website at www.mediatek.com.
Gameloft Modern Combat 5 True Octa Core vs Quad Core Comparison [techand trickz YouTube channel, Nov 26, 2013]
Gameloft teams up with MediaTek to unleash stunning graphical gameplay for Modern Combat 5 [MediaTek press release, Nov 18, 2013]
Gameloft to use latest True Octa-Core MT6592 to bring mobile gaming to the next level
Paris – November 18, 2013 – Gameloft, a leading global publisher of digital and social games, and MediaTek, a leading fabless semiconductor company specializing in wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, announce that the hotly anticipated Modern Combat 5 will be optimized on the new MT6592 octa-core smartphone chip, for Android smartphones.The MT6592, MediaTek’s latest innovation, is the first true octa-core processor in the world, and Gameloft’s next title, Modern Combat 5, will be the first game optimized for the new chip. As mobile gaming moves forward highly detailed and realistic gameplay, the need for higher performance chipset is required. Specific features of the new Modern Combat 5 include definition levels not seen before, especially in the technically difficult mediums of water distortion effects, reflections and shadowing.
Modern Combat 5 is a fast-moving, visually exciting action game played across various terrains and conditions. MT6592 allows for continuous scrolling in high definition with attention to detail from soft particle display to enhanced depth of field to create a more immersive experience.
“We’re thrilled to expand our collaboration with MediaTek,” said Ludovic Blondel, Vice President OEM at Gameloft. “This new octa-core system on a chip is focused on high performance and is one of the best mobile technologies on today’s market. We are delighted to showcase this innovative, high-end technology in Modern Combat 5, one of our most awaited games of 2014.”
“With the rapid development of mobile Internet applications and services, mobile gaming has become one of the leading value-added services for our customers and the best medium to experience the power of True Octa-Core with our MT6592 chip,” said Jeffrey Ju, General Manager of MediaTek Smartphone Business Unit. “Our partnership with Gameloft on Modern Combat 5 is a major breakthrough for the industry and gaming community, as we empower the ultimate gaming experience that can be enjoyed anywhere, anytime.”
Modern Combat 5 will be available on all smartphone models equipped with the MT6592 chip, and will be available for download from the Google Play Store in early 2014.
###
About Gameloft
A leading global publisher of digital and social games, Gameloft® has established itself as one of the top innovators in its field since 2000. Gameloft creates games for all digital platforms, including mobile phones, smartphones and tablets (including Apple® iOS and Android® devices), set-top boxes and connected TVs. Gameloft operates its own established franchises such as Asphalt®, Order & Chaos, Modern Combat, and Dungeon Hunter, and also partners with major rights holders including Universal®, Illumination Entertainment®, Disney®, Marvel®, Hasbro®, FOX®, Mattel® and Ferrari®. Gameloft is present on all continents, distributes its games in over 100 countries and employs over 5,000 developers. Gameloft is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris (NYSE Euronext: GFT.PA, Bloomberg: GFT FP, Reuters: GLFT.PA). Gameloft’s sponsored Level 1 ADR (ticker: GLOFY) is traded OTC in the US.
Current (Dec 22, 2013) MT6592-based smartphones in PDAdb.net:
|
Coolpad 9976A ???
|
O2 Super K1 [RMB 2,199 – $362]
|
|
THL W11 Monkey King II
|
Uniscope XC2S
|
|
UMI X2S ???
|
|
Newman K18 16GB ???
|
Newman K18 32GB ???
|
|
Zopo ZP998 [internally as Zopo Black 2 for RMB 1,499 – $247]
|
|
Alcatel One Touch Idol X+ (TCL S960T) [RMB 1,999 – $329]
|
Huawei Ascend G750-T00 / Honor 3X / Glory 4
|
The case of the most ambitious newcomer, ZOPO:
Next Step of ZOPO-Return Banquet of Partners of ZOPO Draws to a Successful Conclusion [ZOPOMOBILE YouTube channel, Aug 31, 2013]
From: At August 30, 2013, Return Banquet of Partners（global Market） of Shenzhen ZOPO Communications-equipment Co., Ltd. was held at the The Pavilion Hotel, Shenzhen, China. More than 50 people attended this return banquet activity, including Mr. Kevin Xu, President of ZOPO Communications-equipment Co., Ltd., Mr. Allen Cao, senior manager, Mr Shawn Sun, executive director of zopomobileshop.com, and representatives of various reseller, such as dx.com, efox-shop.com, lightinthebox.com and other retail business.
The return banquet at afternoon started with Mr. Allen Cao, senior manager of international market, delivered his thanksgiving remarks to the guests on behalf of the ZOPO Communications-equipment Co., Ltd, thanking the partners of the various fields for their constant trust and support to ZOPO Communications-equipment Co., Ltd. He introduced to partners achievements of the accelerated development the ZOPO mobile phone business on global market in 2012 and 2013. ZOPO already have 4 official distributors in European: French, Germany, Italy, Spain. ZOPO also have built up strategic partnership with more then 10 E- business, such as zopomobileshop.com, pandawill.com, ebay, paypal, AliExpress and so on. Mr.Cao show special thanks to zopomobileshop.com team, appreciate Ms. Jessica Tang and Zopomobileshop team provide global customers a channel to understand ZOPO and the reliable service. Afterwards，Mr. Kevin Xu，President of the company introduced its direction for future development in becoming “ a reliable and professional smart phone supplier by providing users phone with the latest tech”. He confirms that ZOPO will be the first factory to release smart phone with 8 cores. Further more, the ZP980 and C2, will have a update to a 2rd generation version and a version with batter price come out soon. Then Mr. Jay Wang, CEO of Pandawill.com has a speech as partners representative.
Return banquet of partners of ZOPO communications-equipment CO.，Ltd. has been end of a dinner. Mr. Kevin Xu, President of ZOPO Communications-equipment Co., Ltd., Mr. Allen Cao, senior manager, drank with all guests, praying together for a bright and beautiful future. The party thus drew to its successful conclusion and happy wishes.
Zopo – Factory Testing of Zopo C2 Mobile Phone [Digital Playworld YouTube channel, July 31, 2013]
Zopo Factory Tour — How Popular Zopo 990, 980 Phones Be Made [Jody Elife YouTube channel, Nov 19, 2013]
ZOPO ZP998 AnTuTu Benchmark [ZOPOMOBILE YouTube channel, Dec 17, 2013]
ZOPO zp998 Octa Core NFC Test – Zopomobileshop [ZOPOMOBILE YouTube channel, Dec 17, 2013]
Pre-order ZOPO ZP998 FIRST TRUE 1.7GHz Eight-core 2GRAM+32 ROM MTK6592T 14.0MP CAMERA (Delivery after 30days)
