Semiconductors

Finally: AWS Gives Servers A Real Shot In The Arm

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Finally, we get to test out how well or poorly a well-designed Arm server chip will do in the datacenter.

Amazon Web Services is an ecosystem unto itself, and it owns a lot of its own stack, so it can just mike drop the Graviton2 processor on the stage at re:Invent in Las Vegas and dare Marvell, Ampere, and anyone else who cares to try to keep up.

Source: Finally: AWS Gives Servers A Real Shot In The Arm

Powering and Cooling a Wafer Scale Die

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Has Cerebras solved the classic wafer-scale challenges?

Powering and cooling such a large device was also a big question mark. With the launch of its CS-1 system, a computer built around this extraordinary device, Cerebras has now revealed a few small practical details.

The CS-1 is 26” tall and occupies a third of a data centre rack (15 rack units). This system, says the company, can replace hundreds or thousands of GPUs, which would need dozens of racks. There is one WSE in each system and it is fed with 1.2 Tbps of data (twelve 100-Gigabit Ethernet lanes).

Documents released by Cerebras reveal that “powering and cooling the world’s largest and fastest processor chip is an exceptionally challenging undertaking,” and while they don’t say exactly how much power is required, they do give us a clue. Apparently, the system uses less than one-tenth of the power (per compute unit) that a GPU-based system would, and they also mention that a GPU-based system on the same scale would require hundreds of kilowatts. Perhaps it’s safe, then, to assume the CS-1 draws power in the tens of kilowatts range.

Source: Powering and Cooling a Wafer Scale Die

Intel Blames Qualcomm for Modem Business Failure, Urges Court to Uphold FTC Ruling – ExtremeTech

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Intel is arguing that the case against Qualcomm should stand in a new court filing. Intel sold its 5G modem business to Apple after years of failing to catch hold in the market and blames Qualcomm for the loss.

Qualcomm refuses to sell modem chips to a third-party handset manufacturer (OEM) unless the OEM takes a separate license to Qualcomm’s standard essential payments (SEPs) on Qualcomm’s preferred terms–including the payment of a royalty to Qualcomm on every handset an OEM sells, even if the handset uses a rival’s chip. That coercion allows Qualcomm to shift part of its chip revenues into its royalty rates, overcharging on the patent royalty while undercharging for chips. That manipulation of prices in turn destroys the normal competitive process in the chip market. It artificially limits OEMs’ interest in buying modem chips from suppliers like Intel because OEMs must pay Qualcomm’s manipulated royalty on top of whatever the competing supplier charges for the chip itself. At the same time, because Qualcomm has funneled its monopoly chip profits into coerced “royalties,” rivals like Intel cannot engage in meaningful price competition in the sale of modem chips.

Source: Intel Blames Qualcomm for Modem Business Failure, Urges Court to Uphold FTC Ruling – ExtremeTech

Has Arm Discovered the Ecosystem Keys?

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Arm server development is a reality and a growing one at that. Not just from a performance point of view but also, perhaps more important, from an ecosystem view.

Be it the Marvell ThunderX2 processor or the Ampere eMAG Skylark processor, the hyperscale, cloud, enterprise ecosystems are willing to adopt these new processors to further improve their TCO or dollars/core.

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To make things better for the Arm ecosystem, in 2017, a brand new company, Ampere Computing bought the X-Gene assets and re-introduced the X-Gene processor as the Ampere eMAG processor

 

Source: Has Arm Discovered the Ecosystem Keys?