Qualcomm Provides Details about 64-bit ARM Falkor CPU Cores used in Centriq 2400 Server-on-Chip

Qualcomm officially announced they started sampling Centriq 2400 SoC with 48 ARMv8 cores for datacenters & cloud workloads using a 10nm process, but at the time the company did not provide that many details about the solution or the customization made to the CPU cores. Qualcomm has now announced that Falkor is the custom CPU design in Centriq 2400 SoC with the key features listed by the company including: Fully custom core design – Designed specifically for the cloud datacenter server market, with a 64-bit only micro-architecture based on ARMv8 (Aarch64). Scalable building block – The Falkor core duplex includes two custom Falkor CPUs, a shared L2 cache and a shared bus interface to the Qualcomm System Bus (QSB) ring interconnect. Designed for performance, optimized for power 4-issue, 8-dispatch heterogeneous pipeline designed to optimize performance per unit of power, with variable length pipelines that are tuned per function to maximize […]

NFV PicoPod is a Cluster of Six MACCHIATOBin Networking Boards for OPNFV, ODP, DPDK and OPF

If you are interested in networking applications, you may have already heard about Marvell ARMADA 8040 based SolidRun MACCHIATOBin board with multiple 10Gbps and Gbps network interfaces, three SATA ports, and more. PicoCluster has decided to make a cluster of 6 MACHIATOBin boards coupled with a Marvell Prestera DX 14 port, 10GbE switch for OpenDataPlane (ODP), Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), OpenFastPath(OPF) as well as OPNFV (Open Platform for Network Functions Virtualization) . The main features of the full assembled kit –  named Cube – include: 6x MACCHIATOBin quad core Cortex A72 boards (24 cores in total) 1x Prestera DX 10GbE 14-port switch board 6x fans Power Supply Acrylic case The cluster kit comes with 64GB micro SD cards pre-loaded with the latest OPNFV Danube software release for ARM integrated by ENEA Software AB. The cluster is said to be compliant with the OPNFV Pharos specification. Three pre-order options are […]

Packet 96-core Cavium ThunderX Baremetal ARMv8 Servers are Available for $0.50 per Hour, $372 per Month

Last week, I wrote about Scaleway ARMV8 cloud servers powered by Cavium ThunderX processors. They are very cheap, as low as 0.0006 Euros per hour or 2.99 Euros per month, but you only get access to 2 to 8 cores, so obviously you don’t get a baremetal server for that price.  If you want the latter Packet.net has been offering just that since the end of last year with their Type 2A baremetal server with two Cavium ThunderX 48-core processors, 128 GB RAM, 384 GB SSD and 20 Gbps bandwidth. The servers can currently run Centos 7, CoreOS, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS,  with support for container platforms such as CoreOS Tectonic, Rancher, Docker Cloud, ContainerShip, StackEngine, Docker Machine, etc… You can check the status for other operating systems and features and the roadmap page. They also have x86 servers, and I’ve included the hourly and monthly prices and features for all […]

Cavium ThunderX based Scaleway ARMv8 Cloud Servers Go for 2.99 Euros per Month and Up

Scaleway launched 32-bit ARM server hosting services in 2015 for 10 Euros per month, before dropping the price to 2.99 Euros per month half-year later, and now the company has just launched a new offering with 64-bit ARM servers powered by Cavium ThunderX processor going for 2.99 to 11.99 Euros per month depending on configuration. The processors are equipped with DDR4 ECC memory, and all three services included unlimited transfer, so you don’t need to pay for any bandwidth fee. While the price is shown per month, you’ll be billed by the hour (0.006 Euro/h for ARM64-2GB), so if you are using those for development it may even cost less per month, as you can turn them off when not working. All server are located in a Paris data center in France, and runs Ubuntu 16.04, but more operating systems and “InstantApps” will be added to the selection. More servers […]

SolidRun MACCHIATOBin Mini-ITX Networking Board is Now Available for $349 and Up

SolidRun MACCHIATOBin is a mini-ITX board powered by Marvell ARMADA 8040 quad core Cortex A72 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz and designed for networking and storage applications thanks to 10 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, and 1 Gbps Ethernet interfaces, as well as three SATA port. The company is now taking order for the board (FCC waiver required) with price starting at $349 with 4GB RAM. MACCHIATOBin board specifications: SoC – ARMADA 8040 (88F8040) quad core Cortex A72 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with accelerators (packet processor, security engine, DMA engines, XOR engines for RAID 5/6) System Memory – 1x DDR4 DIMM with optional ECC and single/dual chip select support; up to 16GB RAM Storage – 3x SATA 3.0 port, micro SD slot, SPI flash, eMMC flash Connectivity – 2x 10Gbps Ethernet via copper or SFP, 2.5Gbps via SFP,  1x Gigabit Ethernet via copper Expansion – 1x PCIe-x4 3.0 slot, Marvell […]

$40 NanoPi K2 Board Powered by Amlogic S905 Processor Competes with ODROID-C2, Raspberry Pi 3

Hardkernel ODROID-C2 board is getting some direct competition with FriendlyELEC’s NanoPi K2 development board powered with Amlogic S905 processor with 2GB RAM, a very similar form factor, and many of the same features, which together with Khadas Vim (Pro) brings the number of low cost Amlogic based development boards to three. NanoPi K2 board specifications with differences compared to ODROID-C2 highlighted in bold or stricken-through: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with penta core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – eMMC module socket, micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (Realtek RTL8211F), 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6212 module) with chip antenna + IPX connector USB – 4x USB 2.0 host ports (GL825G USB hub) + micro USB OTG port for power and adata Expansion Header 40-pin header with GPIO, […]

Azul Systems’ Zulu Embedded is a Build of OpenJDK for ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and x86 Compliant with Java SE standard

Yesterday as I wrote about the Embedded Systems Conference 2017 schedule I came across a potentially interesting talk entitled “Building A Brain With Raspberry Pi and Zulu Embedded JVM” by Azul Systems that will explain how to build a brain emulator using a cluster of Raspberry Pi boards. I wanted to find more about it, but I have not been able to find any details about the project/demo at this stage. However, I could still learn a bit more about Zulu Embedded, which is said to be an open source Java Virtual Machine based on OpenJDK, compliant with Java SE standard, working on 32-bit & 64-bit ARM & x86, MIPS, and PowerPC, as well as  multiple operating systems. Some of the key features of Zulu Embedded include: Java Support – Java 6, 7, 8, and 9 when available Java Configurations – Headless, headful, or compact Java Compact Profiles Hardware – […]

Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5 Board Replaces Allwinner H3 by Allwinner H5 for $1 More

It’s hard to keep up, but Shenzhen Xunlong has launched another Orange Pi board, as two weeks after introducing Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 development board, the company has now introduced “Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5” board, with the exact same specification, except Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 32-bit processor has been replaced by Allwinner H5 quad core Cortex A53 64-bit processor. Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 H5 board specifications: SoC – Allwinner H5 quad core Cortex A53 processor with 2+4 core Mali-450MP4 GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI port Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 LE (Ampak AP6212) with u.FL antenna connector and external antenna USB – 1x micro USB OTG port Camera – MIPI CSI port Expansion headers – Unpopulated 26-pin “Raspberry Pi B+” header + 13-pin header […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case