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Thursday, 22 December 2016

ARM acquires HPC/supercomputer software specialist Allinea

Processor core IP supplier ARM has acquired supercomputer software vendor Allinea Software. Although ARM has a huge share in the embedded, mobile and portable computing market, its processors are not used much in the high performance computers such as supercomputers. ARM has entered the server market in last 3/4 years, and is now trying to get into high-performance computing/supercomputer market.

This acquisition is aimed at strengthening its capability in HPC, so that its customers can be given processor core IP and also the software to debug and tune the high-performance computing design. ARM 64-bit ARMv8-A processor cores were used Fujitsu's powered Post K supercomputer, and the company has launched ARMv8-A Scalable Vector Extension.

ARM says ARMv8-A is the first alternative architecture with OpenHPC support, and the release of ARM Performance Libraries, which provide ease of software development and portability to ARMv8-A server platforms, added to this now is Allinea's software.

Majority of supercomputer developers are said to use Allinea's tools. The example of its customers include US Department of Energy, and NASA.

Javier Orensanz, general manager, development solutions group, ARM said "Allinea's ability to debug and analyze many-node systems is unique, and with this acquisition we are ensuring that this capability remains available to the whole ARM ecosystem, and to the other CPU architectures prevalent in HPC, as well as in future applications such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced data analytics."

ARM said Allinea will be integrated into the ARM business with all functions and Allinea's Warwick and Eastleigh locations retained. Allinea's former CEO David Lecomber will join the ARM development solutions group management team.

Microsoft to bring full Windows experience on mobile phones

By Unknown 02:03 No comments:

Apps on the x86 architecture have mostly been limited to desktop processors - until now. At the 2016 WinHEC Conference in China, Microsoft announced that ARM processors will soon be able to run the full desktop experience of Windows.

Microsoft to bring full Windows experience on mobile phones

During the Windows 8 time frame, as The Verge recounted, Microsoft implemented Windows on ARM under Windows RT, which proved to be unpopular since RT was only capable of running apps from the Windows store - that meant no x86 apps.

This has been rectified with the software giant's partnership with Qualcomm. Through emulation that is built into Windows 10, ARM processors will be able to run x86 win32 programs.

Executive Vice President Terry Myerson noted on Windows Blog: "For the first time ever, our customers will be able to experience the Windows they know with all the apps, peripherals, and enterprise capabilities they require, on a truly mobile, power efficient, always-connected cellular PC."

With a Snapdragon chipset, Microsoft demoed Windows 10 on ARM running the desktop Office suite, Adobe Photoshop, and Halo Spartan Assault. This showed how easily desktop apps might be handled on laptops and tablets by hardware partners, and even phones with Continuum, all the while taking advantage of the light footprint that mobile processors provide.

Lumia 950 XL release with Continuum, a feature of Windows 10 Mobile that let's phone act like computers when connected to a display. While Microsoft did not discuss Continuum in relation to this x86 emulation, this ARM implementation of Windows 10 could make Continuum that much more potent.

As it stands, Continuum for Windows 10 Mobile can only be taken advantage of using apps specifically design under the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) architecture, but Windows 10 on ARM can bring desktop apps to phones.

Windows 10's support for ARM processors is set to release next year. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Qualcomm, Microsoft announce Windows 10 on ARM

By Unknown 03:53 No comments:

Microsoft has announced a partnership with Qualcomm to bring Windows 10 - real Windows 10, not the aborted cut-down version formerly known as Windows RT - to the company's ARM processors.

Microsoft's previous attempts at playing with non-x86/AMD64 platforms have not exactly set the world aflame. The company has long offered an embedded Windows release which supports ARM and other non-x86/AMD64 architectures, and recently made that available to a wider audience under the moniker Windows 10 IoT Core. Although Windows 10 IoT Core does indeed run on ARM-based devices, in particular the popular Raspberry Pi single-board computer, it's not Windows as most users would know it; instead it's a cut-down operating system designed to run a single application at a time, and built with the intention of winning over embedded developers from Linux and other non-Windows kernels to the Windows ecosystem.

The closest Microsoft has ever come to a true release of a consumer-centric Windows version on ARM was Windows RT, launched alongside Windows 8 on Microsoft's Surface family of tablets. While one or two hardware partners licensed Windows RT, it was soon abandoned by both third parties and Microsoft itself: Microsoft confirmed in 2015 that Windows RT would not be updated to a Windows 10-based version, and sank the final nail into its coffin a few months later by leaving Windows RT out of its so-called 'Universal' Windows Platform.

Now, though, Microsoft is having another crack of the whip, and it's convinced Qualcomm to come along for the ride. Devices built around Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon processors will, the companies have jointly announced, be able to run Windows 10 - and this time it's truly the same release of Windows you'd find on an x86/AMD64 device. Not only will it run Windows 10, mind you, but also Windows 10's considerable ecosystem of applications - including those compiled exclusively for Win32 under the x86 architecture and the Universal Windows Platform.

'To deliver on our customers' growing needs to create on the go, we announced today that Windows 10 is coming to ARM through our partnership with Qualcomm,' explained Microsoft's Terry Myerson in a blog post late last night. 'For the first time ever, our customers will be able to experience the Windows they know with all the apps, peripherals, and enterprise capabilities they require, on a truly mobile, power efficient, always-connected cellular PC.'

Technical details of how the system will work have not yet been released, but the secret lies in emulation: a translation engine will take the x86/AMD64 instructions from the operating system and the software it's hosting and translate them into ARM instructions for the host processor. It's a tried-and-tested approach which gave machines like the Acorn Archimedes and Commodore Amiga basic x86 support in the 1980s and 1990s, though one which typically comes with a considerable performance hit - something for which Qualcomm's latest chips, it is to be hoped, can compensate.

A video demonstrating Windows 10 and Adobe Photoshop running on an ARM-based device is reproduced below, with Qualcomm and Microsoft promising to launch the first units some time next year.

Packet.net strong-ARMs cloud for $0.005 per core per hour

By Unknown 06:42 No comments:

Packet.net strong-ARMs cloud for $0.005 per core per hour

Packet.net, a bare-metal cloud aimed at developers, has flicked the switch on cloud-running servers powered by a pair of Cavium's 48-core ARMv8-A ThunderX processors.

CEO Zachary Smith told The Register that the company's cooked up the cloud for a few reasons. Price is one: Packet will offer ARM cores at a tenth of the price it charges for Intel cores, at US$0.50 per hour per server, or $0.005 per core per hour. Smith thinks that will be a head-turner by itself.

He also thinks developers will appreciate the chance to try native Docker on many-cored machines and appreciate the opportunity an ARM-powered cloud represents as they pursue 100 per cent portable software. He believes open source folk will see the arrival of an ARM-powered cloud as incentive to accelerate cross-platform versions of their pet projects.

Even ARM will benefit, he says, because having a working cloud on the market will give both it and licensees more reason to innovate for the data centre.

ARM's recent purchaser, SoftBank, recently tipped some money into Packet.net, but Smith swears he's had a long-term ambition to offer an ARM-powered cloud, if only because he enjoys having multiple ARM server CPU vendors willing to do deals. That kind of competition is not currently possible in the x86 world, at least until AMD returns to servers in 2017.

Smith also feels that ARM clouds are inevitable, probably thanks to telcos looking to offer cores to rent at the edge of their networks. The CEO feels that telcos will build edge clouds because they're sick of over-the-top players having all the fun and profits: this time telcos want to build a revenue-generating platform beyond mere carriage.

For now, Packet's ARM cloud offers 64-bit Ubuntu 16.04, but promises that CoreOS, FreeBSD and CentOS are in the pipeline. Four different ARM server configurations are also in the works.

The cloud will have an API, a portal, and will also be accessible from DevOps favourites likes Terraform and Ansible. Four of the company's bit barns – in Parsippany New Jersey, Sunnyvale California, Amsterdam and Tokyo – will offer the service as of Tuesday.

"We want to offer a super-cheap, 'you would be stupid not to try it' offering," Smith told The Register. "If we can get the open source ecosystem rebooted, I think Intel's grip on the data centre will be shattered." ®

This Startup Is Betting Big on ARM Chips Shaking Up the Cloud Equation

By Unknown 06:38 No comments:

Packet’s not-so-secret weapon: energy-sipping bare-metal servers using ARM processors. A little-known startup is making a big bet that it can parlay new ARM chips, and backing from a Japanese investment giant, to make its presence felt among the cloud computing giants.

The company, Packet, on Tuesday is launching new rentable “bare metal” computing services based on the ARM v8 chip architecture from its data centers in New Jersey, Northern California, Amsterdam, and Tokyo. Customers can set up and launch these resources within minutes, Packet said

The move is unusual because ARM chips are not commonly found in the servers that power corporate data centers or public cloud computer services, such as those sold by Amazon AMZN -1.47% Web Services. They do, however, dominate the smartphone market—scratch an Apple AAPL -1.87% iPhone (God forbid) and you’ll see an ARM chip. And many techies see ARM’s energy-efficient design as an interesting option for servers going forward.

Bare metal servers, unlike typical cloud-based servers, are not virtualized. That means they can run certain jobs, like databases, faster than virtualized cloud servers. IBM IBM -2.15% , Rackspace RAX 0.00% and some other cloud companies already offer bare metal options for rent.

New York-based Packet, which disclosed $9.4 million in funding from Softbank in September, aims to satisfy what it sees as a growing market for bare-metal computing on demand. Softbank is a great ally for Packet, since it is buying ARM Holdings for $32 billion. ARM Holdings is the U.K. company that controls and licenses ARM processor designs to manufacturers.

Packet CEO Zachary Smith acknowledges that this is a David and Goliath tale in many ways. Intel chips dominate cloud computing services and equipment, as they do inside corporate data centers. And Amazon Web Services and Microsoft MSFT -0.71% Azure are the behemoths in the public cloud market; both organizations sell (or rent) massive amounts of computing power to customers from their Intel-dominated data centers.

Smith has no problem stipulating that Intel owns “99 point whatever percent” of the data center chip architecture, with a smattering of IBM-backed Power chips and Oracle ORCL -1.42% SPARC chips here and there. Likewise, he admits that Intel INTC 0.23% x86 chips work with everything, that Intel fields a huge partner ecosystem of software, hardware and add-on providers, and that it also owns the biggest-and-best fabrication facilities.

But, he also insists that big changes over the past year are shifting the balance of power. “There are a billion smartphones out there with ARM chips,” Smith noted. As a result, there many manufacturers and plenty of ARM licensees working with the technology. What that means is ARM now has an ecosystem all its own, which is something Softbank and Packet hope to capitalize on.

Taking on established cloud giants like Amazon Web Services is a long shot but there are some critical nuances to consider.

First, the market for rentable computer resources is growing fast enough now to float many boats, including newcomers, provided they have funding and innovative services that corporate developers and their IT strategy overlords want.

Second, even cloud giants admit that new chip technologies will be critical as cloud computing matures. Energy-efficient ARM chips that already power an estimated 95% of smartphones are bound to get a look, especially if their use can reduce data center power requirements. Microsoft and Google also talk up x86 alternative chips for some uses. And Amazon last year bought Annapurna Labs, an ARM chip licensee. Clearly, there is interest here.

Smith contended that the widespread use of ARM chips in other scenarios is also making it easier for cloud service providers (and others) to get early previews of the technology and to develop offerings using it.

ARM launches new chip for medical robots and autonomous cars

By Unknown 23:33 No comments:

Japanese-owned chip designer ARM has today unveiled a new chip designed with safety as its key feature.

ARM launches new chip for medical robots and autonomous cars

Unlike standard chipsets, the ARM Cortex-R52 is designed to comply with the most stringent safety standards in the automotive and industrial markets.

Such a chipset is necessary for a number of new emergent computing fields, including self-driving cars and medical robots.

In these fields, compromised code on the chip itself could result in very dangerous consequences when in use.

To mitigate this danger, within the Cortex-R52 chip safety-critical code is fully isolated by ‘hardware-enforced separation’ of software tasks.

“The Cortex-R52 is the first processor built on the ARMv8-R architecture and it was designed from the ground up to address functional safety,” said James McNiven, general manager for CPU at ARM.

While the chips were designed by ARM, the company has already signed a deal with STMicroelectronics for them to be the first licensed manufacturer of the Cortex-R52.

STMicroelectronics themselves noted the security provided by the chips as a key selling point.

“The Cortex-R52’s ability to compartmentalize software provides our users with the best solution for safety without loss of determinism,” said Fabio Marchiò, automotive digital division general manager of STMicroelectronics.

The announcement of this chip comes at a time of growth for autonomous vehicles and other critical robotic systems.

With recent hacking demonstrations showing the relative insecurity of the current chips and software used in these systems, the new ARM chip could find a strong market niche.

The release of the Cortex-R52 also follows ARM’s recent acquisition by Japanese electronics company Softbank.

One of the main drivers of this deal was for Softbank to acquire the chip technology which would underpin the explosion of so-called Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

As autonomous cars and industrial/medical robots are key parts of the IoT ecosystem, this acquisition already appears to be bearing fruit for Softbank.

Further demonstrating the interest in this sector, key rival Intel earlier this year acquired Yogitech, another company which specialized in designing safety chips.

ARM Partnership Is Set To Boost Intel Stock

By Unknown 06:16 No comments:

It looks like Intel (NSDQ:INTC) has finally realized the potential of ARM (NSDQ:ARMH) business prospects. The chipzilla entered into a licensing agreement with ARM last week, which allows it to manufacture ARM-based mobile SoCs for fabless chipmakers such as Qualcomm, Apple and Nvidia. The move would combine Intel’s industry-leading chip fabrication processes with ARM’s highly efficient mobile designs, and the joint synergies could potentially shake up the entire semiconductor industry. Let’s take a closer look to have a better understanding of it all.

Intel recently struck a licensing agreement with ARM to manufacture its chips.
The Move could boost Intel's revenues significantly.
It could also bring upon a cash crunch on Intel's competitors, that could ultimately slow down their rate of progression.

Welcoming ARM, with arms wide open

Let me start by saying that Intel has had the world’s most advanced chip fabrication technologies for several years now. It’s manufacturing lead was as long as 18 months, back in 2014 and the chipzilla is expected to still stay ahead of its peers (Taiwan Semiconductor, GlobalFoundries and Samsung) at least up till 2018. Intel’s competitors were thriving till date due to increasing business from ARM, but now that Intel has entered the scene with similar intentions, the bulk of this business would pretty much go to the chipzilla due to its manufacturing lead. After all, in the cut throat semiconductor industry, everyone would want their performance chips to be manufactured on the latest nodes.

2015 Rank	2014 Rank	Vendor	2015 Revenue	2015 Market Share (%)	2014 Revenue	2015-2014 Growth (%)
1	1	TSMC1	26,566	54.3	25,175	5.5
2	3	Globalfoundries2	4,673	9.6	4,400	6.2
3	2	UMC3	4,561	9.3	4,621	-1.3
4	4	Samsung Electronics4	2,607	5.3	2,412	8.1
5	5	SMIC	2,229	4.6	1,970	13.1
6	6	Powerchip Technology5	985	2	917	7.4
7	7	TowerJazz	961	2	828	16.1
8	10	Fujitsu Semiconductor	845	1.7	653	29.4
9	8	Vanguard International	736	1.5	790	-6.9
10	9	Shanghai Huahong Grace Semiconductor	651	1.3	665	-2
		Top 10 for 2015	44,814	91.7	42,431	5.6
		Others	4,077	8.3	4,281	-7
		Total Market	48,891	100	46,812	4.4

(Source: Gartner.com)

· - The global semiconductor foundry business is estimated to be around $48.8 billion in size. If Intel manages to slice up even 10% of this market, which shouldn’t be that hard since it currently has the world’s most-advanced chip fabrication technologies, its incremental revenues could be to the tune of $4.8 billion. That’s a significant bump in its top-line, representing an increase of about 8.7% over its FY15 revenue. So its needless to say that Intel would be opening a big revenue stream with this move. Intel can later use this additional cash flow to fund its race to global 5G domination.

· - More to the point, the semiconductor industry requires billions of spending each year, earmarked towards improving manufacturing technologies. If Intel manages to take away a sizable market share from Taiwan Semiconductor and GlobalFoundries, then the their constrained cash flows could hamper their R&D and capex spending, and ultimately result in their growth slowdown. So the move to manufacture ARM chips not only serves as an incremental revenue driver for Intel, but also limits the growth of its foundry competitors. Talk about taking down two targets with one blow.

· - Also, once Intel starts manufacturing ARM-based chips, its factory utilization rate and production volumes would increase. This should allow the chipmaker to attain better economies of scale, improve its manufacturing efficiency and at the end of the day, it would become easier for Intel to keep its fabs busy with the onset of this deal. Its foundry operations for ARM-based chipmakers would act as a hedge against the slowing down PC sales. These benefits should translate into better gross margins.

· - And lastly, the move allows Intel to capitalize on the mobile opportunity, while it still can. The chipzilla won’t have to design its own Atom chips for mobile devices anymore in order to tap the smartphone/tablet segment. So Intel would now be able to cater to the mobile market, without having to invest billions in contra revenue or mobile-related R&D spending. I believe that this is a low-risk, high-reward opportunity for Intel and its shareholders.

Tempering excitement

Just like any other business move, this one brings its own set of challenges and limitations as well.

· - First of all, Intel won’t be a chipmaker like Qualcomm, Apple or Nvidia. It will just be a foundry catering to other fabless firms. This pretty much means that Intel’s revenue would be limited to its production volume, regardless of how profitable or popular those chips become. So its revenue stream could end up being as volatile and seasonal as Micron’s.

· - Secondly, if Intel continues in this direction, it might also end up opening its foundry business to ARM-based server chipmakers such as Cavium, AMD and Qualcomm. This may prove to be a death knell for Intel’s highly profitable x86 server business. It could fuel the growth of ARM servers and there’s a solid chance that they’d end up cannibalizing Intel’s Xeon sales. So Intel must not head in this direction.

· - More to the point, Intel’s excess fabs aren’t running 10nm processes. Manufacturing 10nm chips on large scale volume by 2018 would require a lot of retooling on Intel’s part. This would most certainly bump up chipzilla’s capital expenditures over the next few years, without providing any sort of guarantee that fabless chipmakers would pick Intel for their manufacturing needs.

Putting it all together

Intel finally realized that other foundries are its competitors as well. If the chipzilla succeeds in taking business away from them, it would bring upon a cash crunch and ultimately slow down the rate of progress of competition. So the move not only stands to boost Intel’s revenues, but can also potentially impede the growth of its competition. I see this as an excellent business move forward for Intel and its shareholders.