Chipmaker AMD is designing 64-bit ARM technology-based processors in addition to its x86 processors. This represents AMD’s first venture into ARM technology-based processors.
The company says the products will be “highly-integrated, 64-bit multicore System-on-a-Chip (SoC) optimized for the dense, energy-efficient servers,” according to a press release submitted to ChannelPro-SMB.
ARM Holdings is one of the largest semiconductor intellectual property suppliers in the chipmaking industry. The first ARM technology-based AMD Opteron processor is targeted for production in 2014 and will integrate the AMD SeaMicro Freedom supercompute fabric.
The new AMD design was created to address “the growing demand to deliver better performance-per-watt for dense cloud computing solutions,” states the AMD release. In its announcement, AMD says the growth of the data center has come “an opportunity to optimize compute.” For this reason, AMD is providing a “compute ecosystem filled with choice,” offering solutions based on AMD Opteron x86 CPUs, new server-class Accelerated Processing Units that employ heterogeneous systems architecture, and new 64-bit ARM-based solutions.††
AMD’s partnership with ARM represents the next phase of the chipmaker’s strategy to drive innovation of “ambidextrous solutions.” In March, AMD announced the acquisition of SeaMicro, maker of high-density, energy-efficient servers.† AMD will now integrate the AMD SeaMicro Freedom fabric across its AMD Opteron, ARM- and x86-based processors.††
“AMD led the data center transition to mainstream 64-bit computing with AMD64,” says AMD president and CEO Rory Read, “and we will 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.”
For ARM’s part, it says its partnership with AMD promises to supply new, needed products. “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,” says ARM CEO Warren East.
