AMD official to do ARM processor

AMD made a shocking announcement in the early morning: AMD will design processors based on 64-bit ARM architecture, starting with the cloud and data center servers. This will make AMD the only manufacturer in the industry with both x86 and ARM architecture products.

In June of this year, AMD announced that it will introduce TrustZone hardware security technology based on the ARM Cortex-A5 architecture in the next year's APU and gradually expand it to the entire product line. Although AMD has said that it will try third-party IPs more extensively, we have always thought that at best it is using ARM technology on specific modules. We did not expect AMD to directly implement pure ARM-based processors.

AMD's first ARM processors are expected to come out in 2014 and Opteron will continue to display its brand name. This 64-bit multi-core SoC will be optimized for the most intensive, energy-efficient servers in the data center, providing a modern computing experience, and integrating the acquired SeaMicro Freedom supercomputing fiber optic interconnect technology.

At the same time, AMD will continue to adhere to the development of the x86 architecture and is committed to providing customers with more flexible computing ecosystems with multiple options, including Opteron x86 processors, server-class APU processors, and HSA heterogeneous computing systems. 64-bit ARM solution and so on.

AMD also emphasized that the introduction of the ARM architecture is not only a matter of hardware, but also requires cooperation in software, so it will increase investment and promote the development of related applications.

As for why ARM processor was chosen to develop, AMD stated that it has in-depth consensus with ARM and industry on the trend of the industry and opportunities for change. The two parties have already announced secret cooperation for more than a year (without specific disclosure time) and will continue to expand in the future. Cooperation area.

AMD believes that cloud computing is a killer application, data center is the cornerstone of cloud services, intensive computing is the fastest growing server area in the data center, and small and highly parallel workloads are spread across traditional server architectures. Not ideal, it is more suitable for ARM architecture to deal with. The data center will also become AMD's key strategy in the future.

As to whether it will introduce the ARM architecture into desktop and notebook processors, AMD did not give a definitive answer. It just said that ARM will be regarded as a strategic partner and will continue to deepen its cooperation with each other, but it is now paying more attention to ARM. With opportunities in the server space, AMD believes it can provide unique and outstanding solutions here. Obviously, AMD and ARM should be evaluating the possibility of cooperation in the field of consumer devices. It is very likely that AMD ARM processors will be seen on the desktop in the future.

The cooperation between AMD and ARM in the server field has been supported by Dell and Hewlett-Packard two server manufacturers and server system vendor RedHat. The new ecosystem has taken shape.